The United States has disclosed that a US counterterrorism operation in January killed two hostages who were being held by al-Qaeda.
Dr. Warren Weinstein, an American held by the militants since 2011, was one of those killed in the raid in the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The other hostage that was killed was Giovanni Lo Porto, an Italian national held since 2012.
According to a White House statement, the recent counterterrorism operations in the area killed two other Americans, Ahmed Farouq and Adam Gadahn, who were both members of al-Qaeda.
The statement, which said, President Barack Obama “takes full responsibility for these operations,” said officials would be “conducting a thorough independent review to understand fully what happened and how we can prevent this type of tragic incident in the future.”
The statement further said that President Obama would speak later about the incident.
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