Today the White House has issued a bad news, good news report on the fight against terrorism. In belief that the compounds targeted were Al Qaeda strongholds with no hostages present, the U.S. military launched drone strikes.  Unfortunately and tragically, that is where the bad news comes in. CNN’s Jeremy Diamond provides the details:

The White House announced Thursday that a U.S. counterterrorism operation targeting an al Qaeda compound in January accidentally killed two innocent hostages, including one American.
The White House also disclosed Thursday that two Americans, both al-Qaeda operatives, were also killed in U.S. counterterrorism operations in the same region.

Dr. Warren Weinstein was the American tragically killed in the drone strikes.

Susanna Kim at ABC News reports that Weinstein had worked for many years with the Peace Corp and was working on community projects in Pakistan at the time of his capture:

Dr. Warren Weinstein was taken hostage in 2011 when he was a USAID contract worker in Lahore, Pakistan, who was helping Pakistani families escape poverty, according to President Obama. Gunmen stormed his apartment and took him captive before he was traded to al Qaeda.
Today, the White House said Weinstein and another hostage, Giovanni Lo Porto, an Italian national, were killed during an American government’s counterterrorism operation this past January. President Obama called him a humanitarian who “devoted his life” to help people across Africa and South Asia.