US President Barack Obama
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — 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-Qaeda 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-Qaeda lair in January after hundreds of hours of surveillance.
The strike also killed Ahmed Faruq, an American described as a leader of Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent.
It was also revealed that Al-Qaeda’s English-language spokesman, a California rocker-turned jihadist, Adam Gadahn, died in a separate strike.
The White House said neither Al-Qaeda 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, mistakes — sometimes deadly mistakes — can occur.”
Obama said he informed Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi personally about his administration’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.
