Yemen's al-Qaida blames Obama for hostage deaths

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — A top al-Qaida leader in Yemen today blamed U.S. President Barack Obama for the recent deaths of two hostages, an American and a South African, in a failed rescue operation.

Nasr bin Ali al-Ansi's video message, posted on one of the group's Twitter accounts, is its first comment since Luke Somers and Pierre Korkie were killed when U.S. special forces attacked an al-Qaida safe house attempting to rescue the pair.

Al-Ansi said he warned the U.S. against such attempts after a first rescue operation in November failed. He accused Obama of recklessness, and said the raid "caused things to go in a completely different way than we wanted."

Obama said he ordered the raid because Somers, a 33-year-old journalist, was believed to be in "imminent danger." The president condemned Somers' killing as a "barbaric murder."

U.S. officials said that about 40 American special forces were involved in the rescue attempt, which followed U.S. drone strikes in the area.