AFP/Johannesburg

Questions are mounting over a botched US rescue mission in Yemen that left one US hostage and another South African hostage dead, the day before he was expected to be released by his Al Qaeda captors.
The United States admitted it was “absolutely unaware” that a South African charity had negotiated 56-year-old teacher Pierre Korkie’s release—or even that he was being held at the same compound as American photojournalist Luke Somers.
The stepmother of 33-year-old Somers has criticised the mission that should have saved his life, saying “if there had not been a rescue attempt he would still be alive”.
Korkie and Somers were shot by Al Qaeda militants on Saturday when the US commandos were discovered about 100m from the compound where they were being held.
Korkie and his wife Yolande were abducted in May 2013 in Yemen’s second city of Taiz by members of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, while Somers was seized in the capital Sanaa four months later.
Yolande was released in January after protracted negotiations led by South African charity Gift of the Givers.
But Korkie remained captive for another 11 months and his kidnappers demanded a ransom of $3mn.
His ordeal was due to end on Saturday, said Gift of the Givers, claiming they had finally secured Korkie’s release at a reduced “settlement fee” of $200,000 after months of negotiating with Al Qaeda through tribal leaders in the region.
The US insists it was not informed of the development.
“The United States was not aware of the progress of the negotiations between the Gift of the Givers and the Yemeni hostage takers, nor of a promise for Pierre Korkie’s release,” the US embassy in Pretoria said in a statement on Monday.
“Moreover, at no time was it apparent that Pierre Korkie was being held in the same space as the American photojournalist Luke Somers. We moved with the information available in an attempt to save lives.”
The US intervention came after Somers’ captors released a video last week threatening to execute him.
“We had indications, very good indications, that they were going to murder Mr Somers perhaps as early as the next day,” a senior US defence official said on Saturday.
“It was either act now and take the risk, or let that deadline pass. And no one was willing to do that.”
But Somers’ family said they would have preferred a negotiated approach.
Speaking to The Times of London, the British-born photographer’s stepmother Penny Bearman said: “We are sure that Luke would have given support to the ongoing discussions (to secure his release) in Yemen rather than the conflict approach. There had been threats before that had not been carried out.”
At a press conference on Saturday, Gift of the Givers founder Imtiaz Sooliman said that, after seeing the Somers video, he had a premonition Korkie could be killed should the US attempt a rescue mission.
“I’m not blaming them,” he added. “The Americans have their own hostages and their own interests... There’s no bad feeling towards anyone.”
A spokesman for South Africa’s department of international relations and co-operation refused to be drawn on whether or not Gift of the Givers informed them of Korkie’s imminent release.
“We’re trying to bring closure to the matter,” Nelson Kgwete said. “The family requested that finger-pointing not be done.”
But South Africa’s official opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), has urged Pretoria to “engage with American representatives to get to the bottom of the circumstances that led to Mr Korkie’s death”.  




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