Wrong. The president , while announcing a review of the strike, admits sometimes deadly mistakes happen. 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. As president and as commander in chief, i take full responsibility for all our Counterterrorism Operations including the one that inadvertently took the lives of warren and giovanni. It was not just innocent hostages who were the inadvertent targets of this strike. Turns out the u. S. Did not realize there was another american inside that compound a terrorist. It does not end there. The white house telling us they inadvertently killed another american terrorist in a Central Strike that same month in january that was not actually targeting him. That man, a wellknown mouthpiece for al qaeda, the californiaborn adam gadahn. We want to go live to the white house where jim acosta joins us. Jim, two hostages killed. The american, the i
The debate offer the u. S. Drone program in the region. Also b, is this the first time an american citizen has been killed by a drone attack outside of Anwar Al Awlaki who was an american who became a terrorist and taken out by a u. S. Drone strike. To be clear white house statement says counterterror operation. They do not specify that it was a drone strike. So we should hear from the white house and im reaching out now to specify what kind of operation this was. Was a drone strike aircraft or elements on the ground involved. Thats one thing we have to look into. Keep in mind all those things have inherent risks. Drone strikes killed civilians before. You mentioned al awlaki strike the one previous weve known before pesifying drone specifically. Keep in mind there was another operation on the ground in somalia with Ground Forces that killed not an american but an International Hostage from south africa. So all these options at the president s hands, all of them are risky in these cont
World headquarters in new york, this is nbc nightly news. Reporting tonight, lester holt. Good evening. It is a war seemingly without end as we were reminded today with word a u. S. Drone strike targeting al qaeda militants along the afghanistan pakistan border killed two western hostages including an american aid worker the u. S. Had spent years trying to free and an italian aid worker. Their deaths happened in january but were publicly revealed today by president obama. We also learned today two other americans working with al qaeda were also killed. We have two reports and start with Peter Alexander at the white house. Peter . Reporter lester, good evening. The president today said that he deeply regrets the loss of two innocent lives and that he demanded the information be declassified insisting the victims families deserve to know the truth. In an extraordinary statement, president obama today confessed that the u. S. Accidentally killed two hostages,including an american they had
Finally, jihadi john is revealed. Hes the front man for unspeakably horrific isis beheading videos face covered, dressed in black. He holds a knife next to kneeling hostages taunting the entire world in perfect english with a british accent. Now, u. S. Officials confirmed that jihadi john is a kuwaiti born londoner named Mohammad Emwazi. We are learning more about his background and why the white house now sees him as a top target. That comes as shocking new video shows isis thugs ransacking an iraqi museum taking sledge hammers and jackhammers to priceless antiquities they called false idols and gods. Our correspondents and analysts are all standing by. Lets begin with our chief National Security correspondent, jim sciutto, who has the very latest. We are learning now that u. S. Lawmakers have been briefed on suspected americans in isis. This has been a long term concern and this is also happening as u. S. Intelligence officials have increased their estimate of the number of americans
It did not conduct a dna test. An italian hostage, geovonna lo porto was killed in that same operation. President obama takes full responsibility for the drone strike that killed the two hostages and he expressed sympathy to their families. As a husband and as a father i cannot begin to imagine the anguish that the weinstein and lo porto families are enduring today. I realize 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 heart ache. And today i simply want to say this. As president and as commander in chief, i take full responsibility for all our Counterterrorism Operations, including the one that ined a inadvertently took the lives of warren and giovanni. I regret what happened. On behalf of the United States government i offer our deepest apologies to the families. All right, we are currently the White House Briefing has just begun. Were monitoring that. Well bring that to you. We expect the press secretary wil