Widow says family is devastated by news of American's death

WASHINGTON (AP) — The widow of Warren Weinstein (WYN'-steen) says her family is devastated to learn that the American man and an Italian man who was also being held hostage by al-Qaida were killed in a CIA drone strike in Pakistan earlier this year.

In a statement, Elaine Weinstein says the family had hoped that U.S. and Pakistani officials "would have done everything possible" to win his release. But she says those who took him captive bear the "ultimate responsibility." She says, "There are no words to do justice to the disappointment and heartbreak we are going through."

Weinstein, who lived in Rockville, Maryland, was a business development expert working in Pakistan on a contract with the U.S. Agency for International Development. He lived in Pakistan from 2004 until he was kidnapped in 2011 -- just four days before the end of his seven-year assignment.

President Barack Obama phoned the family yesterday with the news of his death. Now, according to a family friend, the family is waiting for more information before deciding whether to have a funeral or a memorial service.

At the Weinstein home in Maryland, friends and neighbors have been leaving flowers near a tree that was wrapped with yellow ribbons.

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207-a-06-(Meredith McCain, neighbor of Warren Weinstein (WYN'-steen, in AP interview)-"he was in"-Neighbor Meredith McCain says she feels heartbroken for Warren Weinstein's family. (23 Apr 2015)

<<CUT *207 (04/23/15)££ 00:06 "he was in"

151-a-07-(Warren Weinstein (WYN'-steen), American who was kidnapped in Pakistan, in video emailed two years ago to media outlets under the label of al-Qaida's media wing)-"negotiate my release"-Warren Weinstein pleaded in a video emailed to media outlets two years ago, under the label of al-Qaida's media wing, for President Obama to help him. (23 Apr 2015)

<<CUT *151 (04/23/15)££ 00:07 "negotiate my release"

APPHOTO MDJL102: Flowers and ribbons adorn a tree outside the Weinstein familyhouse in Rockville, Md., Thursday, April 23, 2015. Earlier, President Barack Obama took full responsibility for the counterterror missions and offered his "grief and condolences" to the families of the hostages, Warren Weinstein of Rockville, Maryland, and Giovanni Lo Porto who were inadvertently killed by CIA drone strikes early this year. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) (23 Apr 2015)

<<APPHOTO MDJL102 (04/23/15)££

APPHOTO WX101: FILE - This image made from video released anonymously to reporters in Pakistan on Thursday, Dec. 26, 2013, which is consistent with other AP reporting, shows Warren Weinstein, a 72-year-old American development worker who was kidnapped in Pakistan by al-Qaida in 2011. The White House says Weinstein and Giovanni Lo Porto, an Italian held by the terror organization since 2012, were inadvertently killed during U.S. counterterrorism operations in a border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan in January 2015. In addition, the U.S. believes that two Americans who were working with al-Qaida were also killed. (AP Photo via AP video, File) (26 Dec 2013)

<<APPHOTO WX101 (12/26/13)££

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