United States President Barack Obama has said that he takes "full responsibility" for the deaths of an American and an Italian hostage held by Al Qaeda during a counter-terrorism operation against the terror group on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
Obama told reporters on Thursday that he could not "begin to imagine the anguish" that Warren Weinstein's and Giovanni Lo Porto's families were enduring and added that he profoundly regretted their deaths, reported the Dawn.
While Weinstein was an American national, Lo Porto was from Italy. Obama has ordered a full review into the incident.
The president said that the men were killed during an operation that targeted an Al Qaeda compound in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan. He said that the mission was "fully consistent" with guidelines for conducting counter-terrorism missions in the region and added that there was no information about the hostages being held at the compound.
Weinstein, a 73-year-old development worker, was kidnapped by the terror group in August 2011. His abduction came just four days before his seven-year-long stint with the U.S. Agency for International Development was to end.
Lo Porto was an Italian aid worker who worked for the German aid group Welthungerhilfe. He went missing in Pakistan in January 2012.
