White House reveals CIA drone strike killed American, Italian hostages

A CIA drone strike in January aimed at al Qaeda inadvertently killed two hostages — one American, Dr. Warren Weinstein, and one Italian, Giovanni Lo Porto — the White House revealed Thursday. Though the CIA had been closely monitoring the suspected al Qaeda compound on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan, it "had no reason to believe either hostage was present" at the time of the strike, the administration said in a statement.

"I take full responsibility for all our counterterrorism operations," President Obama said Thursday in an address from the White House, adding, "I profoundly regret what happened."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Jon Terbush

Jon Terbush is an associate editor at TheWeek.com covering politics, sports, and other things he finds interesting. He has previously written for Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, and Business Insider.