An American and an Italian who had been held hostage for several years by al-Qaeda were inadvertently killed in a US counterterrorism operation in the border region of Pakistan and Afghanistan in January, President Barack Obama said yesterday.
The operation in which American doctor Warren Weinstein and Italian aid worker Giovanni Lo Porto were killed also resulted in the death of an American al-Qaeda leader, Ahmed Farouq, the White House said. Another American al-Qaeda member, Adam Gadahn, was also killed, likely in a separate operation, the White House added.
US government sources said the operations involved drone strikes. Such strikes have long been used by the administration of Obama and his predecessor, George W. Bush, in counterterrorism operations in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area and elsewhere.
Use of drones has been controversial because of the deaths of civilians who were not targeted and because on occasion they have involved killing Americans abroad without judicial process.
The US is conducting a review to understand how the operation killed the unintended targets, Obama said in an appearance at the White House.
I profoundly regret what happened- Obama
He added: “I profoundly regret what happened. On behalf of the US government, I offer our deepest apologies to the families.”
Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni called the incident a “tragic and fatal error that our American partners made,” but said Lo Porto’s death was “entirely the responsibility of the terrorists”.
Although the operation took place in January, a US official said authorities concluded only a few days ago that the two hostages were killed.
Obama said the US intelligence had hundreds of hours of surveillance on the compound targeted in the attack and there had been no signs that Weinstein and Lo Porto were held there.
US officials did not give the location of the incident. If it was on the Pakistan side of the border, it was likely to have been in North Waziristan, a mountainous region where the Pakistani military launched a long-awaited operation last June to clear out the Taliban, and where it now holds the major urban centers.
Pockets of insurgents remain, particularly in the deep forests of the Shawal Valley.
The White House said 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”.
Weinstein’s wife, Elaine, said her family was devastated by his death.
She criticised the US government for “inconsistent and disappointing” assistance during her husband’s years in captivity.
Like other American families whose relatives have been killed over the past year after being held hostage by militants in the Middle East, she called for a better US government policy for relaying information to hostages’ families.
“We hope that my husband’s death and the others who have faced similar tragedies in recent months will finally prompt the US government to take its responsibilities seriously and establish a coordinated and consistent approach to supporting hostages and their families,” she said in a statement.
US Representative John Delaney, who has helped the Weinstein family, said the US needs to do a better job handling American hostages.
Obama said he had spoken with Weinstein’s family.