Al-Qaeda has threatened to execute a kidnapped British-American journalist in Yemen, Luke Somers within three days if the United States fails to end its drone strikes. Somers was kidnapped from Sanaa, capital of Yemen, on September 17 last year.


Al-Qaeda leader in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), Sheikh Nasser al-Ansi made the threat in a three-minute video released on Wednesday.


The Times reported that US Navy Seals raided a rural region in Hadhramaut, east Yemen on November 25 in search for hostages; however some of them were moved by al-Qaeda two days before the mission.


Somers, 33, appears in the video wearing a purple shirt, glasses and has a shaven head before saying: “I'm looking for any help that can get me out of this situation. I'm certain that my life is in danger."


He adds: “So as I sit here now, I ask if anything can be done, please let it be done. Thank you very much.”


According to The Independent UK report,

Mr Somers was born in Britain but spent most of his life living in the US before working for almost two years in Yemen as a freelance photojournalist, interpreter and copy editor for English-language newspapers.

Al-Ansi said he would give the US government three days to satisfy their demands "otherwise the American hostage held by us will meet his inevitable fate."


The kidnapping and video release of a foreign hostage is the first in Yemen and follows the beheadings of two other American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff by ISIS militants.


Others executed by the militant group, also known as the Islamic State, are US aid worker Abdul-Rahman Peter Kassig and two British aid workers, David Haines and Alan Henning.


John Cantlie, a 43-year-old photojournalist from Surrey, was abducted a second time by Isis in Syria and has appeared in four videos reading scripts on behalf of his kidnappers.

Other foreign nationals believed to be held by AQAP include a Saudi diplomat, kidnapped in March 2012, and an Iranian diplomat. A South African man is still missing after his wife was released in January.

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