U.S. Says Not Aware of South Africa Hostage Release Bid in Yemen

The U.S. said it was unaware of the possibly imminent release of a South African hostage in Yemen, who was killed during a raid to free one of his American co-captives.

The U.S. didn’t know that Gift of the Givers, a South African charity, had been working to secure the release of Pierre Korkie or that he was being imprisoned by al-Qaeda militants with U.S. photojournalist Luke Somers, Patrick Gaspard, the American ambassador to South Africa, said in an interview on Johannesburg-based 702 Talk Radio.