<p>A covert US military operation in January targeting al-Qaeda leaders in the Afghan-Pakistan border region accidentally killed an American and an Italian, both aid workers who were hostages of the terror group, President Barack Obama said today.<br /><br /></p>.<p>"Based on information and intelligence we have obtained, we believe that a US counter-terrorism operation targeting an al-Qaeda compound in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region, accidentally killed Warren and Giovanni this past January," Obama said at the White House.<br /><br />The two hostages were American national Warren Weinstein and Italian Giovanni Lo Porto.<br /><br />"Warren and Giovanni were aid workers in Pakistan, devoted to improving the lives of the Pakistani people," Obama said.<br /><br />"After Warren was abducted by al-Qaeda in 2011, I directed my national security team to do everything possible to find him and to bring him home safely to his family. I spoke with Warren's wife Elaine and Prime Minister Matteo Renzi of Italy.<br /><br />"As a husband and as a father, I cannot begin to imagine the anguish that the Weinstein and Lo Porto families are enduring today," he said.<br /><br />"I realise that there are no words that can ever equal their loss. I know that there is nothing that I can ever say or do to ease their heartache," said the US president, taking full responsibility for all American counter-terrorism operations, including the one that inadvertently took the lives of the two hostages.<br /><br />Obama said the initial assessment indicates that the operation was fully consistent with the guidelines under which the US conducts counter-terrorism efforts in the region, which has been in focus for years as it is the base of the al-Qaeda leadership, and was based on intelligence obtained at the time, including hundreds of hours of surveillance.<br /><br />"We believed that this was an al-Qaeda compound, that no civilians were present and that capturing these terrorists was not possible. And we do believe that the operation did take out dangerous members of al-Qaeda," he said.<br /><br />"What we did not know, tragically, is that al-Qaeda was hiding the presence of Warren and Giovanni in this same compound," he added.<br /><br />In an earlier statement, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said, Ahmed Farouq, an American who was an al-Qaeda leader, was killed in the same operation that resulted in the deaths of Weinstein and Lo Porto.<br /><br />He also said that Adam Gadahn, another American who became a prominent member of al-Qaeda, was killed in January, likely in a separate US operation.<br /><br />"While both Farouq and Gadahn were al-Qaeda members, neither was specifically targeted, and we did not have information indicating their presence at the sites of these operations," Earnest said. </p>
<p>A covert US military operation in January targeting al-Qaeda leaders in the Afghan-Pakistan border region accidentally killed an American and an Italian, both aid workers who were hostages of the terror group, President Barack Obama said today.<br /><br /></p>.<p>"Based on information and intelligence we have obtained, we believe that a US counter-terrorism operation targeting an al-Qaeda compound in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region, accidentally killed Warren and Giovanni this past January," Obama said at the White House.<br /><br />The two hostages were American national Warren Weinstein and Italian Giovanni Lo Porto.<br /><br />"Warren and Giovanni were aid workers in Pakistan, devoted to improving the lives of the Pakistani people," Obama said.<br /><br />"After Warren was abducted by al-Qaeda in 2011, I directed my national security team to do everything possible to find him and to bring him home safely to his family. I spoke with Warren's wife Elaine and Prime Minister Matteo Renzi of Italy.<br /><br />"As a husband and as a father, I cannot begin to imagine the anguish that the Weinstein and Lo Porto families are enduring today," he said.<br /><br />"I realise that there are no words that can ever equal their loss. I know that there is nothing that I can ever say or do to ease their heartache," said the US president, taking full responsibility for all American counter-terrorism operations, including the one that inadvertently took the lives of the two hostages.<br /><br />Obama said the initial assessment indicates that the operation was fully consistent with the guidelines under which the US conducts counter-terrorism efforts in the region, which has been in focus for years as it is the base of the al-Qaeda leadership, and was based on intelligence obtained at the time, including hundreds of hours of surveillance.<br /><br />"We believed that this was an al-Qaeda compound, that no civilians were present and that capturing these terrorists was not possible. And we do believe that the operation did take out dangerous members of al-Qaeda," he said.<br /><br />"What we did not know, tragically, is that al-Qaeda was hiding the presence of Warren and Giovanni in this same compound," he added.<br /><br />In an earlier statement, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said, Ahmed Farouq, an American who was an al-Qaeda leader, was killed in the same operation that resulted in the deaths of Weinstein and Lo Porto.<br /><br />He also said that Adam Gadahn, another American who became a prominent member of al-Qaeda, was killed in January, likely in a separate US operation.<br /><br />"While both Farouq and Gadahn were al-Qaeda members, neither was specifically targeted, and we did not have information indicating their presence at the sites of these operations," Earnest said. </p>