I’m guessing, but I wonder if this was a mission they dreaded having to risk but had to, because they assumed it was better than nothing since he was going to die anyway.
They had already tried a mission a few weeks ago and the bad guys might have been too prepared for there to be much of a chance of him coming out alive, I hope that the rescuers didn’t suffer casualties.
Perhaps, or maybe it was a drone strike mishap? See: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/12/06/drone-kills-alleged-al-qaeda-members-official-says/?intcmp=latestnews