Overnight it was learned that Luke Somers, the American threatened in an ISIS video on Thursday, was killed while the U.S. was attempting to rescue him in Yemen.
Senior US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AP news agency that they believed both men were shot by their captors as the raid unfolded, and eventually died of their injuries.
Both hostages were alive when US forces rescued them, pulling them onto a plane that flew to a nearby US naval ship, officials said.
However, Mr Korkie is believed to have died during the flight, while Mr Somers died on the USS Makin Island, they added.
A spokesman for South Africa’s Department of International Relations told local media: “We were informed this morning that Mr Pierre Korkie was killed in an operation by American forces to rescue hostages, that he was caught in the crossfire.”
US special forces were in possession of Mr Korkie’s body, which would be repatriated to South Africa, spokesman Nelson Kgwete added.
Obama admitted that the failed rescue attempt was committed to because he had received intelligence that Somers was in imminent threat. This is at least the second attempt at a rescue that had failed, the first of which was revealed in a press conference with Josh Earnest Friday: