An American and an Italian held hostage by al-Qaeda, as well as two Americans working with the militant group, were inadvertently killed by CIA drone strikes early this year, the government revealed Thursday.
President Barack Obama said he took full responsibility for the counter-terror missions and offered his “grief and condolences” to the families of the hostages, Warren Weinstein and Giovanni Lo Porto.
Mr. Obama defended the legality of the January drone strike that killed the hostages and said there had been no evidence that the two men were present at what the U.S. had determined was an al-Qaeda compound in Pakistan.
“Based on the intelligence that we had obtained at the time, including hundreds of hours of surveillance, we believed that this was an al-Qaeda compound, that no civilians were present and that capturing these terrorists was not possible,” Mr. Obama said at the White House. “And we do believe that the operation did take out dangerous members of al-Qaeda.”
Among those believed killed in the strike was Ahmed Farouq, who the White House said was an American who was an al-Qaeda leader.
U.S. officials have also concluded that Adam Gadahn, an American who had served as a spokesman for the terror network, was killed in a separate operation in January.
Gadahn used the name “Azzam the American” in his statements supporting al-Qaeda.
The White House said neither Farouq nor Gadahn were intentionally targeted in the strikes and the U.S. did not have information indicating their presence at the site of the operations.
U.S. government officials said the CIA carried out the drone strikes on Jan. 14 and Jan. 19 in Pakistan.
The White House said the strikes happened in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Obama offers condolences
Mr. Obama expressed regret for the deaths of the two men and offered condolences to their families. “I realize there are no words that can ever equal their loss,” said Obama, adding that he had spoken with Weinstein’s wife and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.