Al Qaeda hostage: Family pleas for life of American photojournalist

Al Qaeda hostage: Family pleas for life of American photojournalist

Jordan Somers indirectly puts the question to al Qaeda militants in Yemen in a video message, in which he and his mother plead with them to let American Luke Somers go.

The Islamists have threatened to kill the photojournalist who fell into their hands in September last year, if Washington doesn’t meet their demands.

“We have no explanation as to why Luke was targeted as a victim, and we currently don’t know why he is being held,” Jordan Somers tells them.

He wants his captors to believe that his brother is a good man who cares about Yemenis. “He has made many lasting friends in Yemen,” he says.

A raid by U.S. and Yemeni special forces last month that freed eight hostages could have also rescued Luke Somers, but a move by his captors prevented it.

Then this week, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, released the video threatening his life and showing Somers pleading for it.
Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi, who read a statement for al Qaeda in the video, did not name the demands the terrorist group expects the U.S. government to meet, but said that Washington knows what they are.

Special forces planned the raid after al Qaeda militants were spotted transferring the hostages into pickups, “chained and covered in blankets,” according to a website associated with Yemen’s defense ministry.

Militants drove them to a cave over 65 miles away from the town of Hajir al-Saiyer.

U.S. and Yemeni special forces outfitted with night visors embarked on the mission about four miles from the cave. They encountered the kidnappers near its entrance; a gun battle ensued, and the special forces killed all seven abductors.

They also freed eight chained up hostages, who told them that militants had moved five more hostages to another location, according to the Yemeni defense ministry account. That included Somers.