An American and an Italian held hostage by al-Qaeda, as well as two Americans working with the terror group, were inadvertently killed in U.S. counterterrorism operations earlier this year, the White House said today.
Warren Weinstein, an American held by al-Qaeda since 2011, and Giovanni Lo Porto, an Italian held since 2012, were killed in the January operation in the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The operation targeted an al-Qaeda-associated compound and there was no reason to believe either hostage was present, the White House said.
In addition, the U.S. believes Ahmed Farouq, an American who the White House says was an al-Qaeda leader, was killed in the same operation. U.S. officials have also concluded Adam Gadahn, an American who had served as a spokesman for the terror network, was killed in a separate operation in January.
The White House said Farouq and Gadhan were not specifically targeted in the operations, nor did the U.S. have information indicating their presence at the sites.
President Barack Obama expressed regret for the accidental killings when he spoke at the White House on Thursday morning.
He said he spoke to Weinstein's wife on Wednesday as well as to the Italian prime minister.
Obama said that as president and commander in chief, he takes "full responsibility" for counter-terrorism operations, including the one that resulted in the deaths of Weinstein and Lo Porto. He added that the strike did take out dangerous members of al-Qaeda and that intelligence had indicated no civilians were present at the compound that was hit.
"What we did not know, tragically, is that al-Qaeda was hiding the presence of Warren and Giovanni in this same compound," Obama said.
"It is a cruel and bitter truth that in the fog of war generally and our fight against terrorists specifically, mistakes, sometimes deadly mistakes, can occur," the president continued.
The White House said that while it believes the operations were lawful, the U.S. is conducting an independent review to understand what happened.
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