US launched rescue on news hostage’s life was in danger

US president Barack Obama has said that he authorised the attempt to rescue hostage Luke Somers in Yemen because the US had information that the British-born photojournalist’s life was in imminent danger.

Shortly before the White House statement, Yemen’s national security chief said militants had planned to kill Somers. On Thursday, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula posted a video online threatening to kill the US citizen.

Authorities said Somers, 33, who was kidnapped in September 2013, and South African teacher Pierre Korkie, died in the rescue operation that Obama said was conducted by US forces in partnership with Yemen’s government.

Obama said he “strongly condemns the barbaric murder of Luke Somers at the hands of al Qaeda terrorists” and reaffirmed that the US “will spare no effort to use all its military, intelligence, and diplomatic capabilities to bring Americans home safely, wherever they are located”.

He said terrorists “who seek to harm our citizens will feel the long arm of American justice”.

A mysterious US raid last month had tried to rescue Somers but he was not at the site, the Pentagon said on Thursday.

Obama cited the captors’ video threatening to kill Somers within 72 hours and said “other information also indicated that Luke’s life was in imminent danger”.

“Based on this assessment, and as soon as there was reliable intelligence and an operational plan, I authorised a rescue attempt yesterday,” Obama said in the White House statement.

Obama said Somers wanted to use his photographic images to convey the lives of Yemenis to outsiders and had come to the country “in peace and was held against his will and threatened by a despicable terrorist organisation”.

“The callous disregard for Luke’s life is more proof of the depths of [al Qaeda’s] depravity, and further reason why the world must never cease in seeking to defeat their evil ideology,” he said.

Speaking in Afghanistan, defence secretary Chuck Hagel said the rescue operation was “extremely well- executed” but complicated and risky.

Vice-president Joe Biden said the US “will be relentless in our efforts to bring to justice” those responsible “for this despicable crime”.

About 40 US special operations forces were involved in the rescue attempt, which followed US drone strikes in the area. The rescuers, backed by Yemeni ground forces, advanced within 100m of the compound in Shabwa province when they were spotted by the militants and a firefight followed.

Amid the fighting, US forces saw a militant briefly enter a building on the compound and officials believe it was then that Somers and Korkie were shot. When Americans entered the building, they found both men alive, but gravely wounded.

Officials said that, based on where the men were being held, there was no possibility that they were struck by American gunfire.

US forces pulled Somers and Korkie onto V-22 Osprey aircraft and medical teams began performing surgery in mid-air. One of the men died during the short flight and the second died after the Ospreys landed on the USS Makin Island, a navy ship in the region.

The raid was over in about 30 minutes.