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Warren Weinstein: Family of Western hostage paid ransom to al-Qaeda, says report

Captors also demanded release of militants held in jail

Andrew Buncombe
Friday 24 April 2015 15:55 BST
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Flowers outside the family home of Warren Weinstein
Flowers outside the family home of Warren Weinstein

A year after Warren Weinstein was taken hostage, his family paid a ransom to his al-Qaeda captors, it has been reported.

CNN said on Friday that after the payment was made, the captors – who referred to themselves as Afghans rather than al-Qaeda – also began demanding the release of militant prisoners in exchange for his life. Among those whose release they requested was Dr Aafia Siddiqui of Pakistan.

The militants also wanted the release of local militants who hailed from the Pakistani province of Waziristan, along the Afghan border. The men on the other end of the phone spoke Pashto with an accent typical for the border region, CNN said.

Hostages Warren Weinstein (left) and Giovanni Lo Porto were killed in a US drone strike in Pakistan

The report emerged a day after the White House announced that two Western hostages – Mr Weinstein and Italian Giovanni Lo Porto - had been accidentally killed in a US counter-terrorism operation on the the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in January.

While the White House has refused to confirm the details of the operation, reports said they were killed in a drone strike on a suspected al-Qaeda compound in Pakistan’s Shawal Valley.

“I take full responsibility for our counter-terrorism operations,” President Barack Obama said in a televised address on Thursday morning.

“In the fog of war... mistakes, sometimes deadly mistakes, can occur... I profoundly regret what happened. On behalf of the US government, I offer our deepest apologies to the families.”

Newsweek reported that the family of Mr Weinstein, an aid worker, had received several letters from al-Qaeda.

It said that one of them had begun: “The organisation of Qaeda al-Jihad would like to clarify the following for the family of the prisoner, Warren Weinstein.

“Your government wants Warren Weinstein to die in prison so that it may absolve itself of responsibility regarding his case. Your government has not made any serious efforts for the release of the prisoner. Your government has not contacted us for his release.”

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