Obama offers condolences for Afghan death
By Ian Dunt
President Obama has called David Cameron to offer his condolences for the death of British aid worker Linda Norgrove.
It emerged yesterday that Ms Norgove, who had been kidnapped while doing aid work in Afghanistan, may have been accidently killed by the American task force authorised to rescue her.
This contradicted earlier reports which said she died when one of captors detonated his suicide vest.
“The president offered his condolences for the death of Linda Norgrove,” a Downing Street spokesperson said last night.
“They agreed that the decision to launch the rescue operation had been right, given the grave danger to Linda’s life, and that US forces had shown great courage.
“The prime minister and the president agreed that it was now essential to get to the bottom of what had happened in the course of the rescue operation.
“They looked forward to close co-operation between the UK and US authorities on the investigation and agreed to stay in close touch as it moved forward.”
Mr Cameron appeared visibly shaken when he appeared in front of reporters yesterday to inform them of the development.
Cameron press conference as-it-happened
A href=”http://www.politics.co.uk/news/foreign-policy/british-hostage-may-have-been-killed-by-us-grenade–$21384681.htm”>Norgove death: More details
In a statement to the Commons yesterday, foreign secretary William Hague said a second US team watching video surveillance of the operation realised that the blast which killed Ms Norgove may have come from an American grenade.
A joint US-UK investigation is now working to establish what occurred.
