Al Qaeda hostage family pleas for Life.

Jordan Somers indirectly puts the
question to al Qaeda militants in
Yemen in a video message, in which
he and his mother plead with them to
let American Luke Somers go.
The Islamists have threatened to kill
the photojournalist who fell into their
hands in September last year, if
Washington doesn’t meet their
demands.
“We have no explanation as to why
Luke was targeted as a victim, and we
currently don’t know why he is being
held,” Jordan Somers tells them.
He wants his captors to believe that
his brother is a good man who cares
about Yemenis. “He has made many
lasting friends in Yemen,” he says.
A raid by U.S. and Yemeni special
forces last month that freed eight
hostages could have also rescued
Luke Somers, but a move by his
captors prevented it.
Then this week, al Qaeda in the
Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, released
the video threatening his life and
showing Somers pleading for it.
Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi, who read a
statement for al Qaeda in the video,
did not name the demands the
terrorist group expects the U.S.
government to meet, but said that
Washington knows what they are.
Special forces planned the raid after al
Qaeda militants were spotted
transferring the hostages into pickups,
“chained and covered in blankets,”
according to a website associated
with Yemen’s defense ministry.
Militants drove them to a cave over 65
miles away from the town of Hajir al-
Saiyer.
U.S. and Yemeni special forces
outfitted with night visors embarked
on the mission about four miles from
the cave. They encountered the
kidnappers near its entrance; a gun
battle ensued, and the special forces
killed all seven abductors.
They also freed eight chained up
hostages, who told them that militants
had moved five more hostages to
another location, according to the
Yemeni defense ministry account.
That included Somers.