U.S. President Barack Obama looks on during the Summit on College Opportunity
U.S. President Barack Obama looks on during the Summit on College Opportunity while at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, December 4, 2014. Reuters/Larry Downing

U.S. photojournalist Luke Somers and South African teacher Pierre Korkie were killed after the U.S. military had failed to keep the element of surprise in a raid on Saturday, Dec. 6. An al Qaeda terrorist fatally shot both who had been kept as hostages in Yemen.

U.S. President Barack Obama green signalled for the Friday mission as there had been "compelling reasons to believe that Somer's life was in imminent danger," CNN quoted Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. U.S. was given three days by al-Qaida to comply with its demands, which had not been disclosed yet. According to a senior official from the U.S. State Department, the White House might not have been aware that the other hostage, Korkie, was already scheduled for release. NBC News reported that it might have been a dog, which had alerted al Qaeda about the movements of Navy Seals. The 33-year-old American, along with his 56-year-old South African counterpart, was fatally shot soon after the militants had come to know about the Seals' "secret" mission.

Korkie was supposed to be released on Sunday as Gift of the Givers, a relief group working for it for a long time, had informed his wife that the wait for his release was almost over. The group said that Korkie's wife had been recently told that he should be home at Christmas. However, the group said that it had not meant it to happen in the manner it did. Korkie was referred to as a "respected teacher" and "an innocent man" by his wife in a video that had been made before he was killed.

This was, however, not the first time the U.S. military failed in its rescue attempt. There have been several occasions in the past when the United States has failed to bring home its men who had been kept as hostages overseas. The most recent example is U.S. military's failed attempt earlier in 2014 to rescue journalists, like Steven Sotloff and James Foley who were later beheaded on camera by Islamic State militants. Al Jazeera reported that the Pentagon confirmed that it had conducted a secret mission to rescue them and failed.

Somali Pirates held four Americans as hostages in February 2011. When U.S. troops reached the scene, they discovered that the hostages had already been killed during the operation. Revolutionary forces in Iran detained 52 U.S. citizens in November 1979. Then President Jimmy Carter ordered a secret mission in April 1980 to rescue the U.S. hostages. The mission was cancelled during the process as some of the rescue helicopters did not arrive for the operation. One of those crashed into a transport aircraft, which killed eight U.S. soldiers. The hostages were later released in 1981. The mission was the subject of the 2012 Oscar winning film "Argo."

Contact the writer: s.mukhopadhyay@ibtimes.com.au