British hostage may have been killed by US grenade, says Cameron
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
London, Oct 11, IRNA -- Prime Minister David Cameron admitted Monday that British hostage Linda Norgrove may have been killed in Afghanistan by US forces and not by her local captors as previously claimed.
At the start of a press conference in London, Cameron said it had emerged that Norgrove “may not have died at the hands of her captors' but was killed as a result of US grenade being detonated during last week’s rescue operation.
Concern has already been raised over the failed military rescue attempt, with local police chiefs in the mountainous Kunar region reportedly saying that they wanted negotiations to continue to try to secure the Scottish aid worker’s release.
'We were 100 per cent sure that if they had stopped the operation we could have negotiated and we could have released her,” one Afghan leader was quoted saying by the Scotsman newspaper.
Cameron said he had spoken to Norgove’s family about the 'deeply distressing' news and that US military commanders had expressed their 'deep regrets' about the possibility about the way she may have died.
'We must get to the bottom of what happened, first of all so the family gets this information and knows exactly how their wonderful daughter died,' he said.
Foreign Secretary, William Hague, was expected to make a further statement later Monday. Over the weekend, he defended the failed operation, saying 'all the blame' for the death lay with her captors and that the rescue attempt was 'her best chance of safe release'.
The Scottish aid worker was working for the US agency Development Alternatives Inc, based in Jalalabad, when she was captured last month. Local seized with her were earlier released.
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Islamic Republic News Agency/IRNA NewsCode: 30014153
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