“According to US and Yemeni reports, a dramatic firefight took place after a villager spotted their advance and raised the alarm just as the Navy SEALs were poised to snatch the hostages.
“The heavily armed Navy SEALs sprinted from house to house, surrounding the compound and shooting up to ten suspected terrorists.
“US commanders appealed for the terrorists to surrender, as an official explained: ‘They called on the kidnappers to give themselves up because they were surrounded on all sides.
“’But the kidnappers immediately killed two hostages, which prompted the forces to open fire on the kidnappers. They tried to give first aid to the hostages but they had lost their lives.’
“Navy SEALs stormed the compound, killing the guards and recovering the fatally wounded Mr Somers and Mr Korkie.”
Interesting. They shouldn’t have appealed for the surrender, though, because they should have known that they weren’t dealing with rational people who cared whether they lived or died, and that the jihadis would kill the hostages rather than surrender.
So was it a bad decision on the ground, or did they have orders to ask for a surrender and not harm any jihadis?