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Sources: Weinstein's Family Paid Ransom To Captors

ROCKVILLE, Md. (WJZ) --  Still a number of unanswered questions about the death of Warren Weinstein, the Maryland contractor killed by a drone strike near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

Family and friends say Weinstein's death, along with that of an Italian man, should make the U.S. reconsider the use of drone strikes.

According to CNN, Weinstein's family paid a ransom in 2012--about a year after he was kidnapped in Pakistan.

Weinstein was not released. Instead, the captors demanded prisoners be released in exchange for him.

The 73-year-old, along with an Italian hostage, were killed in a drone strike targeting al-Qaeda leaders.

The Obama Administration says there was no intelligence the hostages were being held there.

"Over the past 24 hours, as we mourned the tragic loss of our husband, father, and grandfather, we have been moved by the tremendous outpouring of support from around the world," Weinstein's wife, Elaine, said. "We appreciate the sympathy and condolences we have received from those who knew the Warren we loved so much as well as those who did not. We are still focusing on our grief process and our family, and appreciate the continued respect for our privacy as we work through this devastating time."

"We want to especially thank Italian Prime Minister Renzi for his message of condolence yesterday and we want to let the Lo Porto family know that they and Giovanni have also been in our thoughts since we learned this tragic news, she added. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of others who have been taken hostage around the world as they endure these terrible ordeals."

Weinstein, The Associated Press reports, was a former professor at a state college in upstate New York.

Officials at the State University of New York at Oswego said in a statement Thursday that Warren Weinstein was a political science professor at the college in the 1970s. They say he left Oswego in 1979 to work overseas with U.S. Agency for International Development.

SUNY Oswego President Deborah Stanley says Weinstein "devoted his life to making the world a better place."

Weinstein was from Rockville.

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