Intelligence shortfalls led to the deaths of 2 hostages

The US drone strike that accidentally killed two hostages in Pakistan exposes intelligence shortfalls that former and current US officials say appear to be growing more frequent as militants expand their safe havens and as Washington gathers less on-the-ground human intelligence.

US President Barack Obama's admission on Thursday that a US drone strike accidentally took the lives of two hostages - one US citizen and one Italian - has raised fresh questions about the limits and the risks of the country's "targeted killing" campaign. The strike also killed two US citizens who had leadership roles with al-Qaida.

Obama said he took full responsibility for the January CIA strikes and regretted the deaths of US doctor Warren Weinstein and Italian aid worker Giovanni Lo Porto. The president cast the incident as a tragic consequence of the special difficulties of the fight against terrorists.

Ahmed Farouq, a dual US-Pakistani national who was an al-Qaida operations leader in Pakistan, also was killed in the strike, along with a small number of members of the terror organization, the officials said. Adam Gadahn, a US citizen who served as an al-Qaida spokesman, was killed in a separate strike on a second compound.

US officials said Farouq and Gadahn were not specifically targeted in the operations, and there was no evidence they were at either compound.

The incident is likely to spark fresh scrutiny of Obama's frequent use of drones to target terrorists and his pledge to strike only when there is "near certainty" that no civilians will be harmed.

Obtaining timely intelligence on hostages has always been difficult, especially in volatile regions where the United States has limited access and where militants have well-established operations.

But as unrest spreads, militants are acquiring more safe havens, including bases in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Yemen and Iraq, complicating and often hampering US intelligence-gathering.

That has forced US intelligence operatives to become more dependent on electronic eavesdropping and spy satellites rather than using informants and on-the-ground human intelligence, the officials say.

The White House promised the mistake would be thoroughly investigated.

Reuters - AFP - AP