WASHINGTON (AP) – Vice President Joe Biden says the U.S. will be “relentless” in its efforts to bring the killers of an American photojournalist to justice.
Biden also calls the death of Luke Somers a “despicable crime.”
President Barack Obama said in a written statement earlier Saturday that Somers was killed by al-Qaida-linked terrorists who had been holding him hostage in Yemen during a U.S. military rescue operation.
A South African hostage also was killed.
Biden says U.S. intelligence agencies worked hard and relentlessly to figure out how to rescue Somers.
He says U.S. special forces soldiers “inflicted serious damage” on Somers captors.
Biden commented Saturday during a previously scheduled address to a Washington conference on U.S.-Israeli relations.