Yemen rescue failed as captors alerted to approaching U.S. commandos:
officials
By Jeff Mason and Mohammed Ghobari
WASHINGTON/SANAA (Reuters) - It could have been something as simple as a
barking dog that alerted the al Qaeda guards as U.S. special operations
forces approached the compound just after midnight. Within seconds, as they
neared the building, intense gunfire erupted.
Those details and others provided by U.S. and Yemeni officials about what
they describe as Saturday's execution of American photojournalist Luke
Somers and South African teacher Pierre Korkie in Yemen illustrate the
formidable odds the United States faces in retrieving hostages from the
hands of militants across the region.
"There is nothing to indicate what or how these guys knew the team was about
to enter the compound," said one U.S. official, speaking on condition of
anonymity.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and a Yemeni intelligence official said
Somers, 33, and Korkie, 56, were shot by their captors shortly after the
raid began in the arid Wadi Abadan district of Shabwa, a province in
southern Yemen long seen as one of al Qaeda's most formidable strongholds.
The operation, the second attempt to free Somers in 10 days, began with
about 40 U.S. commandos late Friday in Dafaar, a small village. No Yemenis
were involved in the raid, a U.S. defense official said.
The commandos arrived on tilt-rotor CV-22 Ospreys, which can fly like an
airplane and land like a helicopter. Once on the ground, they approached the
compound on foot. A barking dog may have given them away, but that remained
unclear, an official said.
As they approached, they "lost the element of surprise," the official said.
A fierce gunfight erupted.
"The enemy started firing erratically and then our guys returned fire," one
U.S. official said.
The commandos were less than 100 meters (330 ft) from the compound at that
point.
They shot and killed about 10 people, including al Qaeda guards and some
civilians, said Ali al-Ahmadi, Chief of Yemen National Security Bureau. The
Pentagon said it was unaware of any civilian casualties.
As they fought, an al Qaeda guard darted inside the compound and then exited
through the back. Gunfire was heard. That's when American officials believe
Somers and Korkie were killed.
With al Qaeda guards wounded or dead, U.S. commandos moved into the
compound. They found the hostages with multiple gunshot wounds and carried
them to a waiting Osprey, where they were treated. One of the hostages died
in the aircraft, the other died once they landed on a nearby assault ship.
The raid lasted just five to 10 minutes.
The operation was pulled together quickly.
Early on Friday, President Barack Obama authorized the mission to rescue
Somers based on information from the military, law enforcement and the
intelligence community. The Pentagon quickly drafted an operational plan.
"We were working against a timeline, which was al Qaeda's public threat to
execute Luke Somers within 72 hours," one senior administration official
said. "It was our assessment that that clock would run out on Saturday."
Late on Thursday, Pentagon officials told the White House they had drafted a
plan for the mission.
It was reviewed at the White House the next morning and signed off first by
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and then by Obama. U.S. officials said it
had support of Yemen's President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
FAULTY INTELLIGENCE?
The raid was the third failed rescue attempt of an American hostage in five
months and followed a Nov. 25 mission that was unsuccessful because Somers
had been moved before U.S. commandos arrived.
In that raid, U.S. commandos and Yemeni troops swooped before dawn into a
cave in the eastern province of Hadramout.
According to a senior Yemeni security official, seven of the eight people
freed in the raid told Yemen authorities that they were members of al Qaeda
in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the militant network's arm in the country,
who had been held captive by the group on suspicion of being Yemen
government spies. The seven were detained by AQAP "not as hostages but as
suspects," the official said.
He did not elaborate and Reuters could not independently confirm his
description of those being detained. American officials declined to address
the question. Officials at the White House and Pentagon declined to respond
to requests by Reuters for comment.
The seven - five Yemenis, a Saudi and an Ethiopian - are now being held by
Yemen's government, the official said. It is unclear if the United States
was aware that al Qaeda members suspected of being government informants
were among the people rescued in that raid.
An eighth Yemeni, a computer specialist, was also freed.
The raid, along with Saturday's mission and a failed attempt to rescue
American journalist James Foley in July, have raised questions over the
quality of intelligence used by Washington in attempts to free American
hostages.
The Nov. 25 raid in a mountainous region near the Saudi Arabian border
lasted just three minutes, the senior Yemeni security official said.
It is uncertain if al Qaeda learned of plans for the November raid in
advance and exactly when Somers, who was kidnapped in Yemen's capital Sanaa
in September 2013, was moved from the cave in Hadramout.
Those who were freed said Somers and four others were moved 11 hours before
the U.S. commandos arrived, the Yemeni security official said. But a senior
U.S. official told Reuters that Somers and the others were taken out of the
cave either on Nov. 20 or 21, before the Pentagon had even approved the
operation.
At the time, U.S. officials thought he was still in the cave, the American
official said.
(Additional reporting by Phil Stewart in Kabul, Yara Bayoumy in Bahrain,
Mohammed Ghobari in Sanaa and Matt Spetalnick in Washington; Writing by
Jason Szep; Editing by Frances Kerry and Grant McCool)