SANAA, Yemen (AP) — An American photojournalist and a South African aid worker held by al-Qaida militants in Yemen have been killed in a failed U.S. rescue attempt, authorities said Saturday. 
 
 FILE - In this Monday, Feb. 11, 2013 file photo, Luke Somers, 33, an American photojournalist who was kidnapped over a year ago by al-Qaida, poses for a picture during a parade marking the second anniversary... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - This image made from video posted online by militants on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2014, which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, shows Luke Somers, an American photojournalist... (Associated Press) 
 
 This image made from militant video posted online by militants on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2014, which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, shows Luke Somers, an American photojournalist... (Associated Press) 
 
 U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel speaks to the media about his trip to Afghanistan while aboard his aircraft Andrews Air Force Base Friday, Dec. 5, 2014. (AP Photo/Mark Wilson, Pool) (Associated Press) 
 
 Speaking in Afghanistan, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Luke Somers "and a second non-U.S. citizen hostage were murdered" by al-Qaida militants during the raid. 
 
 The aid group Gift of Givers later identified the second hostage as South African teacher Pierre Korkie, who the group said was to be released Sunday. They said he was to be flown out of Yemen "under diplomatic cover, then to meet with family members in a 'safe' country (and) fly to South Africa." 
 
 Hagel did not identify Korkie by name. 
 
 "Yesterday by the order of the president of the United States, U.S. special operations forces conducted a mission in Yemen to rescue a U.S. citizen Luke Somers and any other foreign nationals held hostage with him," Hagel said. "There were compelling reasons to believe Somers' life was in imminent danger." 
 
 Lucy Somers, the photojournalist's sister, told The Associated Press that she and her father learned of her 33-year-old brother's death from FBI agents at 0500 GMT (12 a.m. EST) Saturday. 
 
 "We ask that all of Luke's family members be allowed to mourn in peace," Lucy Somers said from London. 
 
 Yemen's national security chief, Maj. Gen. Ali al-Ahmadi, said the militants planned to kill Luke Somers on Saturday. 
 
 "Al-Qaida promised to conduct the execution (of Somers) today so there was an attempt to save them but unfortunately they shot the hostage before or during the attack," al-Ahmadi said at a conference in Manama, Bahrain. "He was freed but unfortunately he was dead." 
 
 Yemen's local al-Qaida branch, Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, posted a video Thursday that showed Somers, threatening to kill him in three days if the United States didn't meet the group's demands, which weren't specified. He was kidnapped in September 2013 from Sanaa. 
 
 The news of the failed rescue comes after a suspected U.S. drone strike in Yemen killed nine alleged al-Qaida militants early Saturday, a Yemeni security official said before news of Somers' death. The drone struck at dawn in Yemen's southern Shabwa province, hitting a suspected militant hideout, the official said. The official did not elaborate and spoke on condition of anonymity as he wasn't authorized to brief journalists. 
 
 Later Saturday, tribal leaders said they saw helicopters flying over an area called Wadi Abdan in Shabwa province. 
 
 American authorities rarely discuss their drone strike campaign in Yemen. The strikes are despised by many in Yemen due to civilian casualties, legitimizing for many the attacks on American interests. At least six suspected militants were killed in an airstrike in the same province last month. 
 
 Before her brother's death, Lucy Somers released an online video describing him as a romantic who "always believes the best in people." She ended with the plea: "Please let him live." 
 
 In a statement, Somers' father, Michael, also called his son "a good friend of Yemen and the Yemeni people" and asked for his safe release. 
 
 Korkie was kidnapped in the Yemeni city of Taiz in May, along with his wife Yolande. His wife later was released returned to South Africa. A non-governmental group, Gift of the Givers, helped mediate her release. Those close to Korkie said al-Qaida militants demanded a $3 million ransom for his release. 
 
 "The psychological and emotional devastation to Yolande and her family will be compounded by the knowledge that Pierre was to be released by al Qaida tomorrow," Gift of Givers said in a statement Saturday. "A team of Abyan leaders met in Aden this morning and were preparing the final security and logistical arrangements, related to hostage release mechanisms, to bring Pierre to safety and freedom. It is even more tragic that the words we used in a conversation with Yolande at 5.59 this morning was 'The wait is almost over.'" 
 
 In a statement Thursday, Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby acknowledged for the first time that a mysterious U.S. raid last month had sought to rescue Somers but that he turned out not to be at the site. The U.S. considers Yemen's al-Qaida branch to be the world's most dangerous arm of the group as it has been linked to several failed attacks on the U.S. homeland. 
 
 Kirby did not elaborate on the joint U.S-Yemeni operation to free Somers, saying details remained classified. However, officials have said the raid targeted a remote al-Qaida safe haven in a desert region near the Saudi border. Eight captives — including Yemenis, a Saudi and an Ethiopian — were freed. Somers, a Briton and four others had been moved days earlier. 
 
 Somers was kidnapped in September 2013 as he left a supermarket in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, said Fakhri al-Arashi, chief editor of the National Yemen, where Somers worked as a copy editor and a freelance photographer during the 2011 uprising in Yemen. 
 
 Somers, who was born in Britain, earned a bachelor's degree in creative writing while attending Beloit College in Wisconsin from 2004 through 2007. 
 
 "He really wanted to understand the world," said Shawn Gillen, an English professor and chairman of Beloit College's journalism program who had Gillen as a student. 
 
 Fuad Al Kadas, who called Somers one of his best friends, said Somers spent time in Egypt before finding work in Yemen. Somers started teaching English at a Yemen school but quickly established himself as a one of the few foreign photographers in the country, he said. 
 
 "He is a great man with a kind heart who really loves the Yemeni people and the country," Al Kadas wrote in an email from Yemen. He said he last saw Somers the day before he was kidnapped. 
 
 "He was so dedicated in trying to help change Yemen's future, to do good things for the people that he didn't leave the country his entire time here," Al Kadas wrote. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writers Maamoun Youssef, Sarah El Deeb, Maggie Michael and Jon Gambrell in Cairo, Robert Burns in Kabul, Afghanistan, Andrew Meldrum in Johannesburg and Yusof Abdul-Rahman in London contributed to this report. ||||| The killing of Luke Somers, a British-born American photojournalist, and South African teacher Pierre Korkie during a failed attempt to rescue them in southern Yemen should not come as a surprise. Such operations are notoriously difficult, with the kidnappers, especially when they are well-organised terrorist groups, usually having all the advantages. 
 
 Questions, however, have arisen over key aspects of this particular raid. Mr Korkie was about to be freed by his kidnappers, the aid group he worked with, Gift of the Givers, has disclosed. His wife, Yolande, who was freed earlier this year, said in Cape Town that she was preparing to fly out to meet her husband and has been left devastated by the death. 
 
 His body is expected to return to South Africa on Monday, and on Sunday the government said it was “no time for finger-pointing” over the killing, adding that it undertook “numerous initiatives” to secure his release. 
 
 A statement initially released on the website of Yemen's defence ministry said the rescue attempt of Luke Somers had been successful (Getty) 
 
 However, the BBC reported that a senior member of the US administration had admitted that the special forces unit which carried out the operation was not even aware that Mr Korkie was being held with Mr Somers. What makes this puzzling is that the reason given for carrying out the rescue attempt at this time was because detailed intelligence had become available. 
 
 This pinpointed where Mr Somers was being held and that he faced imminent death. A previous American attempt to free Mr Somers on 25 November failed, his abductors, from Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), having moved their captive. On this occasion, according to local people, numerous fighters were killed, but also civilians, reportedly including a 10-year-old boy. 
 
 About 40 American troops were said to have been involved in the rescue attempt. The special forces reportedly landed by helicopter around six miles from the compound where the hostages were held in Shabwa province. American officials were also unaware of Mr Korkie’s impending release, for which a ransom may have been paid. It is not clear whether that knowledge, and that of his presence with Mr Somers, would have changed the decision to carry out the operation. But this is not the first time that rescue attempts have resulted in fatal consequences when a prisoner was close to being freed through negotiations. Five years ago Stephen Farrell, of the New York Times, and an Afghan colleague, Sultan Munadi, were investigating the deaths of civilians in a Nato air strike near Kunduz when they were kidnapped by the Taliban. 
 
 Talks to free them were progressing when American and British forces launched a rescue attempt in which Mr Munadi and a British soldier were killed. Sultan’s father, Kurban Mohammed, told me in Kabul that his son had called him 90 minutes before he was shot to say he would be home soon. 
 
 When details of the deaths emerged, Downing Street insisted that Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, and Defence Secretary, Bob Ainsworth, had ordered the raid – which both men deny. 
 
 The West has not been very successful in rescuing Islamist-held hostages recently. In July a raid by US special forces to free those being held by Isis failed. The group went on to behead five American and British prisoners. At the same time, however, it freed four French, three Spanish and a German national. The difference was governments had agreed to pay ransoms. 
 
 The widow of David Haines, one of those murdered, said on Sunday of her husband’s killers: “They consider themselves brave, but that’s not bravery.” 
 
 Barack Obama has ordered a review of policy on Americans abducted abroad. He deplored the “barbaric murders” of Mr Somers and Mr Korkie.
– American photojournalist Luke Somers is dead after a rescue attempt by American forces in Yemen, reports the Washington Post. Defense chief Chuck Hagel says that US troops tried to free the 33-year-old Somers because his execution was "imminent," but that his al-Qaeda keepers killed him during the raid. Another hostage identified as South African teacher Pierre Korkie also was killed, reports AP. "We ask that all of Luke's family members be allowed to mourn in peace," said sister Lucy Somers in London. Her brother was kidnapped last year from the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, and US forces had tried to free him in a previous raid. "Al-Qaeda promised to conduct the execution (of Somers) today so there was an attempt to save them, but unfortunately they shot the hostage before or during the attack," says Yemen's national security chief. Somers' father, Michael, had called his son "a good friend of Yemen and the Yemeni people" in a video prior to his death. Luke Somers had worked as a copy editor and photographer for the National Yemen. The charity group Gift of Givers says the South African hostage with him had been scheduled for release tomorrow.