An American photojournalist and a South African teacher held by al-Qaida militants in Yemen were killed yesterday during a United States-led rescue attempt, which President Barack Obama said he ordered due to an "imminent danger" to the reporter.

Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula previously posted a video online threatening to kill photographer Luke Somers, prompting a second rescue attempt for him by US forces backed by Yemeni ground troops. But an aid group helping negotiate the release of South African Pierre Korkie said he was to be freed today and his wife was told only that morning: "The wait is almost over."

A senior Obama administration official said militants tried to kill Somers just before the raid, wounding him. US commandos took the injured Somers to a Navy ship where he died, the official said on condition of anonymity as the information had yet to be approved for release.

In a statement, Obama didn't name Korkie, but said he "authorized the rescue of any other hostages held in the same location."

The South African government did not immediately comment on Korkie's death.

Information "indicated that Luke's life was in imminent danger," Obama said.

"Based on this assessment, and as soon as there was reliable intelligence and an operational plan, I authorized a rescue attempt," he said.

Lucy Somers, the photojournalist's sister, said she and her father learned of the death of her 33-year-old brother from FBI agents at 5am GMT yesterday.

"We ask that all of Luke's family members be allowed to mourn in peace," she said from near London.

Yemen's national security chief, Major-General Ali al-Ahmadi, said the militants planned to kill Somers yesterday, prompting the joint mission.

"Al-Qaida promised to conduct the execution (of Somers) today so there was an attempt to save them but unfortunately they shot the hostage before or during the attack," al-Ahmadi told a conference in Manama, Bahrain.

"He was freed but unfortunately he was dead," he said.

The operation began before dawn yesterday in Yemen's southern Shabwa province, an al-Qaida stronghold in the Arabian Peninsula, the country's local branch of the terror group.

US drones struck first the Wadi Abdan area, followed by strafing runs by jets and Yemeni ground forces moving in, a Yemeni security official said.

Helicopters flew in more forces to raid the house where the men were being held.

At least nine al-Qaida militants were killed in a drone strike, another official said.

Both Somers and Korkie "were murdered by the AQAP terrorists during the course of the operation," US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said from Kabul, Afghanistan.

Yesterday marked the second failed rescue by US and Yemeni forces looking for Somers, among the roughly dozen hostages believed held by al-Qaida militants in Yemen.

On November 25, US and Yemeni forces raided an al-Qaida safe haven near the Saudi border, freeing eight captives. Somers, a Briton, and four others had been moved days earlier, officials said later.

Following the first raid, al-Qaida militants on Thursday released a video of Somers, threatening to kill him in three days if the US didn't meet its unspecified demands or if another rescue was attempted.

Somers was kidnapped in September 2013 as he left a supermarket in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, said Fakhri al-Arashi, chief editor of the National Yemen, where Somers worked as a copy editor and freelance photographer in the 2011 uprising in Yemen.

Before her brother's death, Lucy Somers released an online video saying her brother "always believes the best in people." She ended with the plea: "Please let him live."

In a statement, Somers' father, Michael, also called his son "a good friend of Yemen and the Yemeni people" and asked for his safe release.

Korkie was kidnapped in the Yemeni city of Taiz in May 2013, along with his wife Yolande. Militants later released his wife after a nongovernmental group, Gift of the Givers, helped negotiate her freedom.Those close to Korkie said al-Qaida demanded US$3 million for his release.

"The psychological and emotional devastation to Yolande will be compounded by the knowledge that Pierre was to be released tomorrow," Gift of Givers said yesterday.

A team was preparing the final arrangements to bring Pierre to freedom, Gift of Givers said.

"It is even more tragic that the words we used in a conversation with Yolande this morning was: ‘The wait is almost over,'" it said.

In 2007, Somers earned a bachelor's degree in creative writing from Beloit College in Wisconsin.

"He really wanted to understand the world," said Shawn Gillen, who taught him.

Fuad Al Kadas, who called Somers one of his best friends, said Somers started teaching English at a Yemen school but quickly established himself as one of the few foreign photographers in the country.

"He is a great man with a kind heart who really loves the Yemeni people and the country," Al Kadas wrote in an e-mail from Yemen.

"He was so dedicated in trying to help change Yemen's future," he said.

According to National Yemen editor Al-Arashi, when Somers was editing a story about hostages: "He looked at me and said, ‘I don't want to be a hostage. I don't want to be kidnapped'."

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