The US Embassy in Yemen is now officially at high risk after two US commando raids on Al-Qaeda were made last week in a failed attempt to rescue a kidnapped American photojournalist held in the volatile country. The retaliation started from Sayoun in Hudhrmout in the east of the country. Two car bombs exploded at the gates of the military command building, killing and injuring dozens of Yemeni soldiers on 9 December. The Yemeni Ministry of the Interior ordered all forces to be on their highest alert around the heavily fortified US Embassy and other Western diplomatic missions in the capital. American soldiers landed in Yemen and attacked Al Qaeda forces. A total of 19 Al-Qaeda operatives were killed by American commandos in two different raids, on 25 November and 6 December, in Hudhrmout and Shabwah in the east of the country. The two raids failed to rescue the American photojournalist Luke Somers, who was kidnapped in the heart of Sanaa by Al-Qaeda in September 2013. Three car bombs were reported to have been positioned inside Sanaa, set to explode in retaliation for the 19 men killed. It is easy for terrorists to move around in such a fragile security situation. Last week, a car bomb destroyed the house of the Iranian ambassador in Sanaa, killing and injuring 18 people. The Iranian ambassador survived because he was not inside the house at the time. The huge explosion was only metres away from the country's intelligence headquarters, the Political Security Organisation (PSO), a place of supposedly maximum security. Al-Qaeda would probably have killed the American hostage anyway, whatever the outcome of the raid. Two days earlier, Al Qaeda gave an ultimatum to the United States to meet a long list of demands, including stopping drone attacks in Yemen, within three days. Al-Qaeda also demanded a ransom from the US in return for releasing the hostage, something that the US government refused. As a result, it seemed likely that Al-Qaeda would execute the hostage in the wake of the first US raid on Sayar in Hudhrmout. Seven operatives were killed in the raid and eight hostages were released: six Yemenis, an Ethiopian and a Saudi. Somers, the South African national and a Yemeni intelligence officer were moved to a new location before the first raid on 25 November. On 3 December, Al-Qaeda killed the Yemeni intelligence officer and dumped his body near Qutn in Hudhrmout. On the same day, it announced the three-day ultimatum to the Americans. The two hostages, Somers and the South African, Pierre Korkie, were killed minutes before the American commandos arrived at the place Al-Qaeda was holding them. “After the American airplane landed, Al-Qaeda killed the two hostages and started to fight the American invaders,” a local resident told the Weekly. Two Al-Qaeda operatives were injured in addition to the 10 killed. Korkie was kidnapped along with his wife in Sanaa in May 2013. His wife was released earlier this year. A charity from South Africa said that Korkie had been scheduled for release one day after the failed rescue in return for a ransom of $200,000. American officials said they had not known that Korkie was being held in the same place as Somers. The American forces engaged in the failed rescue attempt included 40 Seals and six commandos. They left the USS Makin Island off the Yemeni coast early on Saturday in V-22 tilt-rotor aircraft and landed in rough terrain before approaching the hostage site on foot. Pentagon officials said the American forces came within 100 yards of Somers when something, possibly a barking dog, alerted those guarding Somers and Korkie. Once the jihadists knew they were under attack, fighting broke out and one of the captors went inside a building where he shot and killed the two hostages.
