Charles Guthrie, Gave details of rescue mission
One British soldier was killed and another was seriously injured when British troops overran a rebel base in Sierra Leone today. The helicopter-borne paratroopers freed six British soldiers and a Sierra Leonean officer. The Ministry of Defence said that eleven British soldiers suffered minor injuries in the operation.
Sierra Leone's information minister said that 25 of the rebels, the West Side Boys, had been killed and another 17 captured. The dead were said to include three women. According to Britain's Chief of Defence Staff, General Charles Guthrie, the militia leader Foday Kallay was among those captured.
The West Side Boys captured eleven soldiers of the Royal Irish Regiment and the Sierra Leonean liaison officer on August 25. Five of their captives were released on August 30. The hostages had been held at the militia's jungle base in Okra Hills, some 70 kilometres east of the capital.
"Before first light a joint British military operation launched an attack on the West Side Boys camp with the aim of releasing the hostages, all six British hostages and the Sierra Leonean are safely back in our hands," Lieutenant Commander Tony Cramp told journalists.
"The situation on the ground requires further activity," Lieutenant Commander Cramp said, responding to questions about the ongoing battle between British troops and the West Side Boys, the breakaway faction of a junta that ruled Sierra Leone between May 1997 and February 1998. The military spokesman said that the raid was carried out because officials believed the hostages were in imminent danger, and that talks for their release were bogging down.
"Although we have had contact with the group holding them over the last couple of days, it was felt that those talks and negotiations were not going anywhere and on the advice of the team conducting the negotiations, it was felt there was an imminent danger to the guys being held and therefore the military option was taken," Lieutenant Commander Cramp said.
Lieutenant Commander Cramp said that the operation was carried out with the full knowledge of Sierra Leone's President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah and the co-operation of the UN peacekeeping mission, UNAMSIL. The freed hostages were later taken to the British logistics support ship, Sir Percival.
