The remains of South African al-Qaeda hostage Pierre Korkie, 56, who was killed along with American national Luke Somers during a botched U.S.-led rescue operation in Yemen, will be flown home to his wife and two children.

Widor Yolande Korkie said the arrival of her husband's remains would help the family reach "closure" after having received notice of his death just two hours after South Africa  humanitarian aid group Gift of the Givers had informed her of his release.

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Gift of the Givers had been working for the 56-year-old teacher's release and had already made arrangements for his pick-up on Sunday prior to the rescue operation.

The U.S. rescue attempt, the second one in recent weeks, had been prompted by threats from the al-Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula (AQAP) that they would kill Somers unless their demands were met by Saturday morning.

According to U.S. Ambassador to South Africa Patrick Gaspard, Washington had been unaware that Somers was being held in the same place as Korkie and that advanced negotiations for the latter's release had been underway.

Early Saturday, some 40 U.S. commandos had reportedly gotten within 100 meters of the rebel stronghold before a barking dog had alerted the insurgents of their presence, Bloomberg relayed.

Through the course of the half-hour long firefight, an AQAP rebel had gone back into the holding cell Korkie and Somers shared and shot them.

Both had been alive at the time U.S. medics had found them and loaded them onboard a helicopter for emergency evacuation but to no avail. The wounded hostages had been pronounced dead before the aircraft had reached U.S.S. Makin Island, just off the Yemen coast.

Yolande Korkie does not blame the U.S. government for her husband's death, said Daan Nortier, spokesperson for the Korkie family.

As a Christian, she has chosen the path of forgiveness - even for the captors, Nortier added.

Gift of the Givers shares the sentiment, saying that the U.S. had only been trying to save Somers.

Korkie and his wife were working for a charity in Taiz, Yemen when they were abducted by AQAP militants on May 2013. Yolande Korkie had been released without ransom in January through negotiations carried out by thr Gift of the Givers.