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Arabia
American journalist reported killed during Yemen rescue attempt
2014-12-06
An American journalist held for more than a year by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula was killed during a rescue attempt by United States commandos late Friday, according to a senior U.S. official.

The official said that the journalist, Luke Somers, was apparently shot by his captors as the raid occurred and was badly injured when the commandos reached him. By the time Somers was flown to a U.S. naval ship in the region, he had died from his injuries.

Somers, a freelance journalist, was seized in Sana in September 2013. Last month, U.S. commandos and Yemeni counterterrorism soldiers made an unsuccessful attempt to rescue him in a remote province.

On Wednesday, the Yemeni extremist group that was holding Somers threatened to kill him by the end of the week.
Posted by:ryuge

#16  EH2664, It is not Hesitation, it's a very nuanced operational tactic known by elite Jedi masters as juking.
Posted by: Count Galeazzo Untervehr1682   2014-12-06 18:16  

#15  Yes, enemy training can't help but improve as we telegraph our every move and TTP. My feeling on the UBL raid was, and will likely always be, that it was orchestrated theater fully coordinated with the government of Pakistan.
Posted by: Besoeker   2014-12-06 17:14  

#14  "That puts the failure rate at way above 50%." It's not cumulative. Each raid has risk to its own. With that and to Besoeker's point I wonder if the enemy's training is getting better, if our templates are getting old, or if our guys are just getting rushed into a op making it come off poorly.
Posted by: 49 Pan   2014-12-06 17:10  

#13  The Abbottabad, Pakistan raid on the UBL compound [just prior to the last presidential election] went off nearly without a hitch. Everything since then has been a cock-up. Prisoners moved, lack of tactical surprise, etc. Strange indeed.
Posted by: Besoeker   2014-12-06 16:30  

#12  Claim: South African Hostage killed one day before his scheduled release.

According to a South African news release, a South African aid organization who had successfully negotiated the release of South African hostage Pierre Korkie's wife Yolande Korkie earlier this year held by Al Qaeda, Pierre Korkie was scheduled to be released the day following the raid.

(Link)

(If that was also the day the American Somers was to be beheaded, then the raid would be considered necessary from the US perspective.)
Posted by: Ebbomosh Hupemp2664   2014-12-06 16:18  

#11  Also killed by the jihadis was a hostage from South Africa, Pierre Korkie. All the SEALS got out safe. Posted by trailing wife

Probably seen by the Champ as a positive.
Posted by: Besoeker   2014-12-06 15:37  

#10  Bigger Picture

Having failed in last months raid, the element of surprise is off. That puts the failure rate at way above 50%.

What the people of America would want to know, was last month's raid failure of Luke Somers due to Obama foot dragging again? Because the Al Qaeda elements and hostages vacated that location before that raid took place. In the past, Obama's Junior Varsity hesitations was THE failure of hostage rescues which meant no one was around when the Seals rolled in, and the hostages were then scheduled for execution. And in most all cases were beheaded.

The notorious "Obama Hesitation" has been a sentence of death to Americans in every foreign crisis involving Al Qaeda or ISIS or Benghazi. Americans should know if "he hesistated again".
Posted by: Ebbomosh Hupemp2664   2014-12-06 14:58  

#9  According to McClatchy, which has a lot of details about the raid, our guys shot dead all approximately seven captors.
Posted by: trailing wife   2014-12-06 14:35  

#8  According to CNN it was Navy SEALS, texhooey. Also killed by the jihadis was a hostage from South Africa, Pierre Korkie. All the SEALS got out safe.
Posted by: trailing wife   2014-12-06 14:31  

#7  I'm just wondering who the "commandos" were.
Posted by: texhooey   2014-12-06 13:54  

#6  The best stat you can give in any hostage rescue is 50% survival rate. Usually the survival rate is less. But to die in a rescue attempt is far better than having your head sawed off on video. Its sad it ended this way, but I'm sure the entire camp was met with an arc lite after the SF guys departed.
Posted by: 49 Pan   2014-12-06 12:34  

#5  Ouch. Will be tough for anyone to top that snark today.
Posted by: Classical_Liberal   2014-12-06 09:39  

#4  I'm waiting on the 'Rolling Stone' version for the REAL story.

Snark of the day, regular commenter division.
Posted by: Besoeker   2014-12-06 09:04  

#3  On Wednesday, the Yemeni extremist group that was holding Somers threatened to kill him by the end of the week.

better to die in a rescue attempt than beheaded in a jihadi video
Posted by: Frank G   2014-12-06 08:59  

#2  And the captors, also dead right? So, there was a penalty phase.
Posted by: Besoeker   2014-12-06 08:17  

#1  They were going to kill him anyway. It was worth the risk to try and save him. Unfortunately there was not a better ending to this story.
Posted by: Airandee   2014-12-06 06:42  

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