The Archbishop of Cape Town has released a statement of condolence to the families of two hostages killed in Yemen during an abortive rescue mission.

The Archbishop of Cape Town, the Most Rev. Thabo Makgoba, has released a statement of condolence to the families of two hostages killed in Yemen during an abortive rescue mission. On 8 December 2014 Archbishop Makgoba wrote he was “sad and shocked” to learn of the deaths of Pierre Korkie and Luke Somers. On the night of 6 Dec a 40 man US special operations team infiltrated a compound in a remote region of South Yemen where Korkie and Somers were held hostage by al-Qaida terrorists. According to the US Department of Defense a dog sounded the alarm of intruders, leading to a firefight. Korkie, a South African teacher, and Somers, a US journalist, were shot by their captors and died shortly there after. President Barack Obama ordered the raid, a White House spokesman said, after al-Qaida threatened to kill the hostages. “We call on all nations involved to expose those who maintain the extremism of groups such as Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. We need to ask who benefits from their terror tactics and what is missing in our efforts to end such hostage-taking and killing. And we need also to address the grievances which fuel such extremism,” the archbishop said.