US drone strikes kill American and Italian hostages in early 2015

Asia-Pacific, News April 23, 2015 , by IRIA No Comments

Two hostages, including one American, were killed during a US operation against an Al-Qaeda compound near the Afghan-Pakistan border, according to the White House.

“It is with tremendous sorrow that we recently concluded that a US government counterterrorism operation in January killed two innocent hostages held by Al-Qaeda since 2011,” reads a statement released by the White House press office on Thursday morning.

Officials say that an attack in January against a suspected terrorist compound caused the death of American development expert Dr. Warren Weinstein and Giovanni Lo Porto, an Italian aid worker

“No words can fully express our regret over this terrible tragedy,” the White House said Thursday, revealing previously classified finding about the January operation. The US president “takes full responsibility for these operations.”

Weinstein worked for a US government agency before being abducted by militants in Lahore, Pakistan, in August of 2011.

US officials told CNN the hostages were killed by a US military drone strike targeting the compound.

The White House said it had no knowledge that the two hostages were present in the compound before it was targeted.

President Barack Obama expressed his regrets Thursday morning and apologized on behalf of the US government.

“As president and as commander-in-chief, I take full responsibility for all of our counterterrorism operations,” US President Barack Obama said during a press briefing from the White House on Thursday morning, “including the one that took the lives of [Weinstein and Lo Porto].”

Two Americans considered by the US government to be prominent members of Al-Qaeda were also killed during counterterrorism operations in the same region, the administration said. Ahmed Farouq, an American considered by the US government to be an Al-Qaeda leader, was killed in the same strike that caused the deaths of Weinstein and Lo Porto.

The administration has also concluded that Adam Gahan, “a prominent member of Al-Qaeda,” was killed during a separate strike that month.

“While both Farouq and Gadahn were Al-Qaeda members, neither was specifically targeted, and we did not have information indicating their presence at the sites of these operations,” the White House said in a statement.

Obama said that the US was never aware that either Weinstein or Lo Porto was being held at the compound that was struck.

“Based on the intelligence that we had obtained at the time, including hundreds of hours of surveillance, we believed that this was an Al-Qaeda compound, that no civilians were present and that capturing these terrorists was not possible,” he said on Thursday.

Over 2,000 people have been killed in US drone strikes in Pakistan alone in the past decade, according to official figures from Islamabad.

The Pakistani government has been also criticized for allowing the US to carry out its drone strikes near the country’s border with Afghanistan.

The aerial attacks, initiated by former US president, George W. Bush in 2004, have been escalated under President Obama.

Pakistan has repeatedly protested that innocent civilians bear the brunt of the devastating attacks.

RT/HDS/HRJ