Seal Team Six along with some Yemeni commandos were flown into the area on U.S. But from what I've learned, it went pretty well at the start. And they've asked for privacy to mourn in peace.ĬORNISH: Tom, from what you've learned, is there anything in the way this rescue operation went down that's raising questions?īOWMAN: Well, clearly there will be what's called an after-action report - a kind of a lessons-learned and how can they do things better, for example. They just didn't know who it was.ĬORNISH: Can you talk about how the Somers family is responding?īOWMAN: Well, the American family of Luke Somers is saying they were not told that a raid would happen and were told by FBI agents after the raid that he had been killed. officials said they knew there was another hostage with Luke Somers. She was released in January with no money changing hands after negotiations. Korkie's wife, Yolande, was also taken hostage with him about a year and a half ago. Korkie, but Doctor Sooliman said he never informed the U.S. He said the Yemeni government was aware of his group's negotiations to release My. And he was told the money - the $200,000 was going to assist the family members of local tribes who had been killed in the ongoing fights between the Yemeni government in al-Qaida. Doctor Sooliman called it a facilitation fee. They expected him to be released the next day.ĬORNISH: Tom, $200,000, but I understand the demand initially was for up to 3 million.īOWMAN: That's right. He said the Korkie family had agreed to pay $200,000 for his release. And I spoke to Doctor Imtiaz Sooliman, head of Gift of the Givers. know that a South African aid group called Gift of the Givers was in the final stages of negotiating the release of Mr. officials are saying they did not know the South African aid worker named Pierre Korkie was also being held there nor, say U.S. Seal Team Six, a special ops team, had pretty good intelligence that the American Luke Somers, a freelance journalist, was being held at this remote location in southern Yemen. TOM BOWMAN, BYLINE: You know, Audie, it is dramatic. It's an incredibly dramatic turn of events.
And Tom, just lay out what happened for us. There was a very limited window for action.ĬORNISH: Joining us in the studio is NPR Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman. It is apparent that these militants were planning to kill Mr. JOSH EARNEST: The president does not at all regret ordering this mission to try to rescue Mr. Here's White House spokesperson Josh Earnest earlier today. They were killed by al-Qaida fighters, shot as dozens of commandos led by the Navy Seal Team Six were attempting to rescue the American.
The other, Pierre Korkie, was South African. There are new details emerging about the deaths of two hostages in Yemen over the weekend.
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