British-born American photojournalist Luke Somers was held hostage by Yemen's local al-Qaeda branch, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, since September 2013.

The militants posted a video on Thursday and threatened to kill the 33-year-old hostage in three days unless the US meets their demands.

Obama said in a statement that he authorized the raid on Friday. He made the decision after advisers said that Somers’s life was in “imminent danger.”

"As this and previous hostage rescue operations demonstrate, the United States will spare no effort to use all of its military, intelligence, and diplomatic capabilities to bring Americans home safely, wherever they are located,” Obama said.

“And terrorists who seek to harm our citizens will feel the long arm of American justice,” he added.

The victim also worked as a translator and as a freelance photographer.

A Yemeni newspaper published an article about Somers this week.

The paper said Somers was “known as the most active photojournalist at Change Square” that was a site of demonstrations against former Yemen’s dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2011.