article_snippet.sent: The 73-year-old was killed alongside Giovanni Lo Porto during an anti-terrorist strike on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border intended to kill members of the group.
article_snippet.sent: However the militants did not provide a proof of life.
article_snippet.sent: When the militants stopped calling, CNN's source could not contact the militants as He had no phone number for the captors.
article_snippet.sent: Porto may have been used to safeguard an Al Qaeda leader while Al Qaeda were in the compound.
article_snippet.sent: US officials have not revealed a specific individual that was targeted during the attacks, but said the compound was hit because intelligence strongly suggested militants were inside.
article_snippet.sent: The senior member of the terrorist organisation may have believed if opposition forces knew hostages were in the compound, The senior member of the terrorist organisation would be safe from drone strikes.
article_snippet.sent: an Al Qaeda leader was Ahmed Farouq, a longtime al Qaeda operative who once hatched a plot to hijack Pakistani vessels and ram Pakistani vessels into American warships, The senior member of the terrorist organisation reported.
article_snippet.sent: During a press conference on Thursday, President Obama  revealed two other Americans, both prominent members of the terrorist organization, were killed in during missions in the same region.
article_snippet.sent: Ahmed Farouq, an American who was an Al Qaeda leader, was killed in the same January operation that resulted in the hostages' deaths while notorious hate preacher and US-native Adam Gadahn was killed in a separate US mission.