US government apologizes for two hostage casualties

The US government has said it is " tremendously sorry"  for killing two hostages held by al-Qaeda during a counterterrorism operation in the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan earlier this year.

The White House said on Thursday that American Warren Weinstein and Italian Giovanni Lo Porto were killed in a drone strike in January in an operation targeting an al-Qaeda-associated compound.

US President Barack Obama said Washington had worked with Italy to retrieve Weinstein and Lo Porto and the mission was "fully consistent" with guidelines for conducting counterterrorism missions in the region.

"Based on the information and intelligence we have obtained, during a counter-terrorism operation we accidently killed Warren and Giovanni this January," Obama said.

"As president and as commander-in-chief, I take full responsibility for all our counter-terrorism operations, including the one that inadvertently took the lives of Warren and Giovanni.

"It is a cruel and bitter truth, during the fog of war mistakes happen."

Weinstein was abducted in August 2011 in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore after attackers broke into his home.

The 73-year-old was the country director in Pakistan for JE Austin Associates, a US-based firm that advises a range of Pakistani business and government sectors.

talian aid worker Lo Porto, 39, had been missing in Pakistan since January 2012.

Lo Porto joined the German aid group Welthungerhilfe in October 2011 and was working as a project manager in Pakistan's Multan region when he was kidnapped together with German Bernd Muehlenbeck.

Muehlenbeck was freed last year.