Al-Qaeda blames Obama for Yemen hostage deaths
A top Al-Qaeda leader in Yemen Thursday blamed U.S. President Barack Obama for the recent deaths of two hostages, an American and a South African, in a failed rescue operation, The Associated Press reported.
Nasr bin Ali al-Ansi's video message, posted on one of the group's Twitter accounts, is its first comment since Luke Somers and Pierre Korkie were killed when U.S. special forces attacked an Al-Qaeda safe house attempting to rescue the pair.
Al-Ansi said he warned the U.S. against such attempts after a first rescue operation in November failed. He accused Obama of recklessness, and said the raid "caused things to go in a completely different way than we wanted."
Obama said he ordered the raid because Somers, a 33-year-old journalist, was believed to be in "imminent danger." The president condemned Somers' killing as a "barbaric murder."