BREAKING NEWS: On Thursday President Obama expressed his “deepest apologies” for the death of two aide workers in a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan. The drone strike was in January and the hostages were being held in an al-Qaeda compound.
Obama said:I want to express our grief and our condolences to the families of two hostages . . . who were tragically killed in a U.S. counter-terrorism operation.
One of the hostage was an American, Dr. Waren Weinstein, and the other hostage was an Italian, Giovani Lo Porto. Weinstein was held by al-Qaeda since 2011 and Lo Porto since 2012.
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The strike happened along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest said in a statement:
The operation targeted an al-Qa’ida-associated compound, where we had no reason to believe either hostage was present, located in the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Earnest also said President Obama ordered the information to be declassified and shared publicly.
He also said the following about the president:
He takes full responsibility for these operations and believes it is important to provide the American people with as much information as possible about our counter-terrorism operations, particularly when they take the lives of fellow citizens.