#Yemen rescue failed as captors alerted to approaching U.S. commandos: officials
▻http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/07/us-yemen-usa-hostage-forces-idUSKBN0JK0Q720141207
Une #étrange histoire de plus,
In that raid, U.S. commandos and Yemeni troops swooped before dawn into a cave in the eastern province of Hadramout and freed eight people.
Seven of the eight turned out to be #al_Qaeda members who had been held captive by the militants on suspicion of being government spies, two senior Yemeni officials told Reuters. The eighth was a Yemeni computer specialist, they said.
Al-Ahmadi, Chief of Yemen National Security Bureau, said after the seven were freed they told Yemen authorities they were members of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the militant network’s arm in the country, and that they had been accused by their own organization of spying for the government.
Thet were detained by AQAP “not as hostages but as suspects,” a senior Yemini security official said.
Reuters could not independently confirm his description of those being detained. American officials declined to address the question. Officials at the White House and Pentagon did not respond to requests by Reuters for comment.
The seven — five Yemenis, a Saudi and an Ethiopian - are now being held by Yemen’s government, the officials said. It is unclear if the United States was aware that al Qaeda members suspected of being government informants were among the people rescued in that raid .