Daily Mail:
A British-born U.S. photojournalist and a South African aid worker held hostage in Yemen by al Qaeda militants have been ‘murdered’ in a failed rescue attempt.
American citizen Luke Somers had been held hostage since September 2013 in Yemen’s capital Sana’a having moved to the country two years earlier.
The 33-year-old was reportedly shot by his captors as Navy SEAL Team six, made up of around 40 men, carried out a dramatic rescue bid in the Wadi Abdan region of the southern Shabwa province late on Friday night.
It is the second attempted extraction by special forces in as many months.
Another hostage, South African aid worker Pierre Korkie, was also killed during the operation – a day before he was due to be released.
According to the Wall Street Journal the commandos hiked for six miles through a mountain range to reach the village where he was being held.
They were only 100 yards away from the compound when the terrorists reportedly heard a dog bark – prompting the militants to shoot the pair dead.
Two medics involved in the operation tried to revive both of the hostages, but one died at the scene while the other succumbed to his injuries on the operating table inside the USS Makin Island.
[ … ]
An Osprey aircraft took a team of U.S. Navy SEALS to the location, which was close to the site where a previous rescue mission had taken place, officials told CNN.
A gun fight is understood to have unfolded before the badly injured hostages were taken away on the aircraft, the report says.
Four Yemeni and CTU agents were wounded during the operation.
According to the New York Times the forces raided four houses in the village where the attack took place, killed six militants but also gunned down eight civilians.
The first issue for me is why, when tier 1 operators must be employed in an operation, SEAL team six always seems to be used? I don’t understand why Delta isn’t the tier 1 team of first choice on land, with SEALs the choice for water operations?
Second, during the days of my focus on military affairs, I lost count of the number of times special operations or Marines raided houses or other locations, only to be thwarted by (or at least informed on) by barking dogs in, near or around the target locations. All the training in the world and the best equipment available cannot fool dogs.
You do have the best security on earth, don’t you? You do have a well-trained and loyal dog? And as for LEOs who would conduct wrong home raids or come to confiscate guns under executive orders, you do understand that we dog owners would shoot back to defend our dogs?
