A botched US counter-terrorism operation ended up killing an American and an Italian held hostage by the Al Qaeda along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border back in January, the White House announced in a belated disclosure on Thursday. Soon thereafter, President Barack Obama offered an emotional apology to the bereaved families and took full responsibility for the operation that “inadvertently” killed the two hostages, Warren Weinstein and Giovanni lo Porto, while targeting an Al Qaeda compound.
“As President and as Commander-in-Chief, I take full responsibility for all our counterterrorism operations, including the one that inadvertently took the lives of Warren and Giovanni. I profoundly regret what happened. On behalf of the United States government, I offer our deepest apologies to the families,” Obama said in a national telecast.
Both victims were aid workers. Weinstein, the American hostage, had been held by Al Qaeda since 2011, and lo Porto, the Italian, since 2012. “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,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said.
The operation targeted the Al Qaeda-associated compound and there was no reason to believe either hostage would have been present there, Earnest said, adding: “No words can fully express our regret over this terrible tragedy.” There was no immediate explanation on why it had taken the US authorities more than three months to make the determination on the fate of the two hostages.
The White House announced that the operation also killed Ahmed Farouq, an American who was an Al Qaeda leader. It also announced that another American member of Al Qaeda, Adam Gadahn, was killed in a separate January operation. Although no details were given about the operation either by President Obama or the White House spokesman, The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed senior officials, reported that the hostages were killed in a drone strike.
In his televised remarks, Obama said he has ordered a full review of what happened. Noting that the initial assessment indicated the operation was fully consistent with the guidelines, he said: “We do believe that the operation did take out dangerous members of al Qaeda. What we did not know, tragically, is that al Qaeda was hiding the presence of Warren and Giovanni in this same compound.”
“We will identify the lessons that can be learned from this tragedy, and any changes that should be made. We will do our utmost to ensure it is not repeated. And we will continue to do everything we can to prevent the loss of innocent lives -- not just innocent Americans, but all innocent lives in our counterterrorism operations,” Obama said, noting that despite some deadly mistakes like this one, the US counter-terrorism efforts since 2001 have prevented new terrorist attacks and saved innocent lives in America and around the world.