Obama apologizes for hostage deaths
WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama said he took “full responsibility” on Thursday for the accidental killing of an American and Italian hostage during an apparent drone strike on an al-Qaida compound in Pakistan.
Lifting the lid on a classified operation, a solemn Obama expressed his “deepest apologies” to the families of 73-year-old economic advisor Warren Weinstein and 39-year-old aid worker Giovanni Lo Porto.
Obama gave few details of the botched action, which officials suggested was a drone strike that took place on an al-Qaida lair in January after hundreds of hours of surveillance.
The strike also killed Ahmed Farouq, an American described as a leader of al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent.
It was also revealed that al-Qaida’s English-language spokesperson, a California rocker-turned jihadist, Adam Gadahn, died in a separate strike. The White House said neither al-Qaida member was specifically targeted, raising further questions about the credibility of US intelligence.
“As president and as commander in chief, I take full responsibility for all our counterterrorism operations, including the one that inadvertently took the lives of Warren and Giovanni,” Obama said. “I profoundly regret what happened. On behalf of the United States government, I offer our deepest apologies to the families.
“It is a cruel and bitter truth that in the fog of war generally and our fight against terrorists specifically, sometimes deadly mistakes can occur.”
Obama said he informed Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi personally about his administra- tion’s findings. Italy’s foreign ministry described the deaths as a “tragic and fatal error by our US allies” but said “terrorists” were entirely to blame.
Obama was quick to stress that “we do believe that the operation did take out dangerous members of al-Qaida.”
“Since 9/11, our counterterrorism efforts have prevented terrorist attacks and saved innocent lives both here in America, and around the world,” Obama said.
A native of Sicily, Lo Porto disappeared in January 2012 in Pakistan. He previously worked in Croatia, the Central African Republic and Haiti.
Weinstein was snatched after gunmen tricked their way into his home in Lahore on Aug. 13, 2011, shortly before he was due to return home after seven years working in Pakistan.
Italian police said on Friday they had dismantled a network of Islamists on Sardinia that included men suspected of in- volvement in one of Pakistan’s deadliest attacks. Arrest orders were issued on the Mediter- ranean island for 18 suspects accused of belonging to “an organization dedicated to transnational criminal activities inspired by al-Qaida and other radical organizations.”