US admits 2 hostages were accidentally killed in al-Qaeda raid

One of the Hostages

The White House has said that a US counterterrorism operation in January killed two hostages who were being held by al-Qaeda. Dr Warren Weinstein, an American held by the militants since 2011, was one of those killed in the raid in the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The other hostage was Giovanni Lo Porto, an Italian held since 2012.

President Barack Obama described it as a painful loss that he profoundly regretted. He said that the US had launched the operation in the belief that the target was an al-Qaeda compound with no civilians present, but that the militants had been hiding the hostages there.

The White House also said that recent counter terrorism operations in the area killed two other Americans, Ahmed Farouq and Adam Gadahn, who were both members of al-Qaeda. President Barack Obama "takes full responsibility for these operations", the White House said.

Regarding the operation that killed the hostages, the White House statement said officials would be "conducting a thorough independent review to understand fully what happened and how we can prevent this type of tragic incident in the future".
"There could be no starker contrast between these two selfless men and their al-Qaeda captors," the president said.

Meet  the hostages?

- Warren Weinstein, 72, an American development worker, was kidnapped from his home in Lahore, Pakistan, in 2011. He had lived in Pakistan for seven years, working on economic development projects.

- Giovanni Lo Porto, a 39-year-old Italian, was kidnapped in Multan, Pakistan, in January 2012. He worked for an international aid group called Welthungerhilfe

Source BBC News