United States Special Forces initiated an unsuccessful rescue operation for two American University of Afghanistan professors kidnapped last month in Kabul
officials with understanding of the attempted rescue incident reported today.
The special forces rescue actually occurred a couple of days right after their Aug. 7 kidnapping. However when the firefight finished, there was no sign of the hostages.
Among the hostages one is American; the other is an Australian.
This was not the first attempt by the U.S. Military to rescue both professors.
The first attempt was aborted when the American rescue force did not obtain White House approval for the rescue objective amid concerns about the intelligence, according to unnamed government officials. In fact, they were in the process and inflight going to the targeted region at the time and had to return back to their base in Afghanistan.
When authorization was granted from President Obama the very next day, the American assault team headed back to the region where they believed both hostages were held and engaged an enemy confrontation at a compound thought to contain the hostages.
?It didn?t go how it was supposed to go,? reported by one official. This official also stated “the attempted rescue objective occurred someplace in Afghanistan.”
It isn’t immediately crystal clear if the hostages were ever in the compound during the rescue and/or moved prior to the second rescue attempt could be initiated.
The professors were kidnapped while traveling in Kabul on Aug. 7. The Haqqani network, an Afghan insurgent group, is suspected.
Today, the U.S. intelligence community is ?not really confident? where in fact the two hostages are, as reported by multiple officials.
One resource close to the matter, reported that the “delay in approving the initial rescue attempt was because of the White House ?bureaucracy.?
?If the hostages are ? in imminent danger, we go,? said the official. ?That had not been the case this time around. That was not the entire case this time, therefore we went the next the very next day.?
Reportedly, not any of the U.S. Special Forces personnel were killed or wounded during the exchange of gunfire with the enemy force.
Just updated that SEAL Team 6 did attempt a rescue mission but failed to locate the professors at the location they went landed from a HALO jump (High Attitude Low Opening parachute jump). And yes, there was a firefight in which seven enemy fighters were killed, according to the officials. The United States was never certain the American University professors were at the site where the SEALS went, or if they were, where and when they had been moved to the new location.