An American and an Italian being held hostage by al Qaeda in a remote region of Pakistan near the Afghan border were killed in a CIA drone strike in January — an accident President Obama on Thursday blamed on “the fog of war.”
Obama grimly admitted the botched operation at the White House and apologized to the families of the two aid workers — Warren Weinstein, 73, of Rockville, Md., and Palermo native Giovanni Lo Porto, 39.
“I profoundly regret what happened. On behalf of the United States government, I offer our deepest apologies,” Obama said.
“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.”
The operation also took out American al Qaeda leader Ahmed Farouq, who last September masterminded a plot in which militants who had infiltrated the Pakistani navy tried to hijack a frigate to attack US warships.
Another American al Qaeda thug, Adam Gadahn of California, was killed in a strike five days later, the administration revealed. Gadahn, it said, acted as a spokesman for the terror group.
Officials did not provide dates, but sources told Reuters the hostages and Farouq were killed Jan. 14 in Shawal, a forested valley between the North and South Waziristan tribal districts in northwest Pakistan. The area is a known al Qaeda hideout.
Obama did not personally sign off on either of the attacks but said he took “full responsibility.”
In the strike, US officials were targeting a suspected al Qaeda compound that had been under surveillance for “hundreds of hours” and mistakenly believed there were no civilians in the vicinity, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.
Officials said an untold number of terrorists had also been killed in the strikes, part of a US strategy using drones to target jihadis.
On Thursday, Weinstein’s wife, Elaine, issued a statement that said her family was “devastated.” In the statement, she blasted his captors — as well as the Obama administration.
“The cowardly actions of those who took Warren captive and ultimately to the place and time of his death are not in keeping with Islam and they will have to face their God to answer for their actions,” she said.
She also blamed US officials and the Pakistani army.
“They failed to take action earlier in his captivity when opportunity presented itself, instead treating Warren’s captivity as more of an annoyance than a priority,” the wife’s statement said.
Weinstein, a business-development expert, was abducted in Lahore, Pakistan, in 2011 while working for a US consulting firm providing nonmilitary aid. He had been there about nine years and was due home four days before he was snatched.
Pakistani police said militants diverted guards at his front gate while five masked gunmen scaled a rear wall and carried him off.
US authorities said they had been working with their Pakistani counterparts to free him, but no rescue attempt was ever made.
Al Qaeda had made outlandish demands for his release, including a halt to all US military action in the region and Middle East as well as the release of all al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners around the world, including those who carried out both attacks on the World Trade Center.
Earnest said US officials began receiving intelligence that Weinstein may have been killed weeks after the January strikes but were able to confirm his death only several days ago.
He would not say whether the attack involved drones, but other sources said drones were used in both strikes.
Obama, Earnest added, spoke to Weinstein’s family and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on Wednesday to break the news. Drone strikes will continue, Earnest said.
Weinstein, who had two daughters and two grandchildren, was seen in videos released in May 2012 and December 2013 pleading with Obama to intervene and saying he was suffering from heart problems and asthma.
“My life is in your hands, Mr. President,” he said. “If you accept the demands, I live. If you don’t accept the demands, then I die.”
Earnest said the families of both men would receive financial compensation.
In Rockville, Md. — where yellow ribbons adorn trees on streets — neighbors recalled Weinstein as a kind man who loved his daughters and grandkids.
Sandy Paregol, 77, said Weinstein’s car was parked in the driveway with a tarp over it for years.
“It was like it was waiting for him to come back and drive it. It’s just so sad, so depressing. This just hits so close to home,” she said.
Edgar Waggoner, 90, who lives next door, said: “He was a good neighbor. He was doing what he was doing in Pakistan for the Pakistani people.”
With Post Wires