Defense, intelligence and administration officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details of the secret operation. The commandos did not know of Korkie’s presence in the compound. The tragedy of the South African’s death appeared to worsen when the South African relief organization that employed him, Gift of the Givers Foundation, said that his negotiated release had been expected Sunday. Korkie, who had been working as a teacher in Yemen, and his wife, Yolande, were abducted in May 2013. 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. Via overhead surveillance that was maintained throughout the rescue attempt, one militant was seen going into the building where Somers was known to be held, a senior administration official said. At least six suspected militants were killed in an airstrike in the same province last month. "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. Reached Saturday by the Associated Press, Somers’s sister, Lucy Somers, said the family had been notified of his death by the FBI but asked that the family be “allowed to mourn in peace.�? But after the AQAP video was released Wednesday, the family released their own video. "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. Before her brother's death, Lucy Somers released an online video describing him as a romantic who "always believes the best in people." ___ 
 
 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.
– 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.