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Luke
Somers, an American who was killed during a rescue attempt against his
al-Qaida captors in Yemen, had been working as a freelance photographer
and editor in that country, and those who knew him say he had
"wanderlust" and was drawn to new experiences.
Lucy
Somers told a BBC News reporter on Saturday that that she learned of
her 33-year-old brother's death from FBI agents. He had been kidnapped
in September 2013 in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa. There were no further
details of the rescue effort or any immediate comment from Washington.
President
Barack Obama said Saturday that he authorized the rescue attempt
because the U.S. had information that Somers life was in imminent
danger.
U.S. special forces had tried to rescue Somers last month.
"My
life is in danger," Somers said in video footage, which appeared to
mimic hostage videos released by the Islamic State group.
Somers,
who was born in Britain, earned a bachelor's degree in creative writing
while attending Beloit College in Wisconsin from 2004 through 2007.
"He
really wanted to understand the world," said Shawn Gillen, an English
professor and chairman of Beloit College's journalism program.
Fuad
Al Kadas, who said Somers is one of his best friends, said Somers spent
time in Egypt before finding work in Yemen. Somers started teaching
English at a Yemen school but quickly established himself as a one of
the few foreign photographers in the country, he said.
"He
is a great man with a kind heart who really loves the Yemeni people and
the country," Al Kadas wrote in an email from Yemen. He said he last
saw Somers the day before he was kidnapped.
"He
was so dedicated in trying to help change Yemen's future, to do good
things for the people that he didn't leave the country his entire time
here," Al Kadas wrote.
Al Kadas said in Yemen, Somers enjoyed making friends with neighbors, youth activists and ordinary people.
Gillen
said Somers wanted to seek out experiences that would matter to him,
noting he traveled to Egypt as part of the school's study abroad
program. The professor said he wasn't surprised when he heard Somers had
moved to Yemen.
"He'd want to be in places
where world events were happening," the professor said, adding that
liberal arts instructors want their students "to go on and lead
meaningful, purposeful lives. Luke was trying to do that. That makes
(his capture) all the more horrible for us to ponder."
Gillen
said Somers was in his advanced non-fiction writing course and a
small-group seminar that focused on William Butler Yeats and James
Joyce. He said Somers would often stop by his office just to chat.
"He
would come by and say, `I was walking across campus and I was thinking
about something Joyce wrote,' and he'd want to talk about it. In many
ways that's a professor's dream come true," Gillen said.
In 2007, Somers worked as an editor at The Teaching Drum Outdoors School in Three Lakes, Wisconsin.
Tamarack
Song, the school's director, told the BBC that Somers was hired to edit a book for
the school. He came to the school with his girlfriend who also was an
editor.
"He was born in England, raised in
America. He had wanderlust." Song said. "He wanted to know what made
people tick. He has an undying curiosity for human dynamics and for the
way people worked. He was constantly doing research."
Song
said he thought Yemen and the Middle East was a symbol for Somers, and
that Somers wanted to be at the epicenter of culture and ideology.
Song said he speculates that Somers went "to be where the action was, to get a feel for the pulse of contemporary conflict."
"He
wanted to be in the center of things, and to get a feel for it. To get
closer and closer, to interview people, to research, to write, to get
right there," Song said.
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