An American journalist and a South African teacher held by al-Qaeda militants in Yemen were killed Saturday during a failed U.S.-led rescue attempt. (AP)
In two very different settings, separate plans were being hatched over hostages held in Yemen.
The Pentagon was putting final touches on a rescue mission in hopes of freeing American Luke Somers. At a South African-based charity, negotiators believed they were within hours of reaching a deal for the release of South African teacher Pierre Korkie.
Neither side was apparently aware of the other — or even that the two men were held together — in the days before an unsuccessful raid by U.S. Special Forces on Saturday that left both captives dead.
The U.S. ambassador to South Africa, Patrick Gaspard, said Monday that American officials did not know of any “ongoing negotiations that had any resolution” toward the release of Korkie, a 54-year-old teacher taken hostage by militant factions in May 2013 along with his wife.
Korkie’s wife, Yolande, was released in January. The hostage takers had demanded $3 million for the release of Korkie, the South African Press Association reported.
But a spokesman for the charity group negotiating on behalf of the Korkie family, Gift of Givers, said a $200,000 payment described as a “facilitation fee” had been arranged.
The spokesman, Ali Sayed, insisted the sum was not a ransom, but said it went toward costs including transport and payments to tribal leaders who served as middlemen between the group and the militants.
“This was not a ransom, which would be considered giving in to the hostage-takers,” said Sayed. “This money was to coordinate what we hoped would be his departure.”
The parallel plans — a precision military strike and methodical contacts by a private aid group — show the possible cross purposes and mixed signals between governments refusing to pay ransom to militants and private initiatives looking for any channels to free captives.
Gaspard, in an interview on Johannesburg-based 702 Talk Radio, said it was “not altogether clear” whether the South African government was aware of the talks by the Gift of Givers, a 22-year-old group that concentrates on relief work in Africa.
“We were just completely unaware of those developments and had to act hastily,” the ambassador said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.
A U.S. statement also said it was not previously known that Korkie was held with Somers, a 33-year-old photojournalist who was born in Britain but spent most of his life in the United States.
“At no time was it apparent that Pierre Korkie was being held in the same space as the American photojournalist Luke Somers,” the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria said in a statement.
Imtiaz Sooliman, director of Gift of the Givers, said the group had kept the South African embassy in Saudi Arabia informed of the efforts, according to the Bloomberg news agency. The embassy also was arranging a passport and travel documents for Korkie as the talks progressed, he said.
A statement on the group’s Web site said a team was in Yemen’s southern port of Aden making “final security and logistical arrangements” to secure Korkie’s release on Sunday and bring him out of the country.
“All logistical arrangements were in place to safely fly Pierre out of Yemen under diplomatic cover,” the statement continued, “then to meet with family members in a ‘safe’ country, fly to South Africa and directly to hospital for total medical evaluation and appropriate intervention.”
President Obama said he ordered the raid because U.S. authorities believed Somers was in “imminent danger” after an earlier failed mission to free him. Last week, a video released by the al-Qaeda faction based in Yemen last week included threats to kill Somers, who was taken captive in September 2013.
In Saturday’s raid, at least 11 other people, including civilians and a local al-Qaeda leader, were killed in the village of Dafaar, a militant stronghold in southern Yemen.
“I don’t judge them for making the raid or have any anger towards them. They were working in the best interests of their citizen,” Sooliman told Reuters. “Any other government would do something similar.”
In England, Somers’ British stepmother, Penny Bearman, criticized the U.S. rescue attempt.
She told the Times newspaper that she was “quite angry, because if there had not been a rescue attempt, he would still be alive.”
“We are sure Luke would have given support to the ongoing discussions [to secure his release] in Yemen rather than the conflict approach,” she told the British newspaper.
She said the release of the video had “led to things escalating horribly.”
Bearman, from Deal, England, said the family had been “kept in the dark” about the rescue effort.
Last week, Somers’ brother, Jordan, and mother, Paula, appealed for Somers to be spared in a video from Madison, Wis.
Paula Somers asks her son’s captors to “please show mercy and give us an opportunity to see our Luke again.”
Deane reported from London.
Brian Murphy joined the Post after more than 20 years as a foreign correspondent and bureau chief for the Associated Press in Europe and the Middle East. He has reported from more than 50 countries and has written three books.
Daniela Deane was a reporter in four countries in Europe and Asia and a foreign affairs writer in Washington before she joined the Post. She now writes about breaking foreign news from both London and Rome.
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