Al-Qaeda on Thursday threatened the imminent execution of an American journalist it kidnapped in Yemen, mocking as "foolish" a failed bid by US forces to free him.

Al-Qaeda on Thursday threatened the imminent execution of an American journalist it kidnapped in Yemen, mocking as "foolish" a failed bid by US forces to free him.

Al-Qaeda in Yemen released a video dated December 2014 naming the hostage as Luke Somers, 33,saying the photojournalist was kidnapped more than a year ago in Sanaa.

US-based monitoring agency SITE Intelligence Group said Somers was seized in the Yemeni capital in September 2013.

Nasser bin Ali Al-Ansi, of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), threatened in the video to kill Somers in three days if Washington fails to meet unspecified demands.

The Yemeni defense ministry said last week that Al-Qaeda had moved hostages, including a US journalist, a Briton and a South African, days before a raid in southeastern Hadramawt province to free the American.

Ansi mentioned a "failed operation" in Hadramawt in which militants died, describing it as the "latest foolish action" by the United States.

The United States said on Thursday that American and Yemeni forces recently tried to rescue Somers.

"Regrettably, Luke was not present, though hostages of other nationalities were present and were rescued," said National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan.

The White House said President Barack Obama had approved a rescue operation last month.

Details of the operation were classified but Defense Department spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby echoed Meehan, saying some hostages had been rescued but that Somers was "not present at the targeted location".