British Free Sierra Leone Hostages
British troops carried out a surprise attack on a swampy base Sunday belonging to a renegade Sierra Leonean army gang, freeing all seven soldiers — six British and one from Sierra Leone — held hostage there, British military officials said.
The rescue team, including helicopter-borne paratroopers, exchanged heavy fire with the renegades on both sides of a 300-yard creek surrounded by mangrove swamps and jungle, British Chief of the Defense Staff General Sir Charles Guthrie said.
One British soldier died, a spokesman for Britain's Defense Ministry said. Another 11 British soldiers suffered minor injuries in the raid.
The rescue operation, which began shortly after dawn, centered on the maverick West Side Boys faction camp in the Occra Hills, where the hostages had been held since Aug. 25. The base is some 45 miles east of the West African country's capital, Freetown.
"The hostages themselves are safely back in our hands, all seven of them," said Lt. Cmdr. Tony Cramp, spokesman for British forces in Sierra Leone. He declined to give details of casualties, saying "next of kin are still being informed."
At least 17 members of the West Side Boys, the army gang holding the hostages, were killed and a number of others wounded. An unknown number were captured, including one of the gang's leaders, known as Brig. Kallay, Sierra Leone Information Minister Julius Spencer added.
"It was a very difficult operation," Spencer said. "We hope this sends a message to (Sierra Leone rebel groups) to give up their arms."
The action was taken after captors holding British soldiers "threatened repeatedly to kill the hostages," British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon said.
Hoon said Sierra Leone's army provided "support and assistance" to the rescue operation, which Cramp described as a cooperative effort between Britain and Sierra Leone.
The rescue operation was sanctioned by Prime Minister Tony Blair and had the approval of Sierra Leone President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah and the U.N. peacekeeping force in the ravaged West African country, Cramp said.
Cramp said the freed hostages were aboard the British navy vessel Sir Percival berthed in Freetown's harbor.
The West Side Boys captured 11 British soldiers and a Sierra Leonean soldier on Aug. 25. Five British officers were freed last week.
British officials feared for the safety of the hostages. The West Side Boys, a notoriously undisciplined gang that has fought both the Sierra Leone government and rebels of the country's brutal Revolutionary United Front.
"Over the last couple of days it was felt these talks were not going anywhere and on the advice of those conducting negotiations it was felt there was an imminent danger to the men being held," Cramp said.
The hostages are members of the 1st Irish Regiment, a team of British army trainers who are helping rebuild Sierra Leone's shattered defense force. The rebels are responsibl for the deaths and intentional mutilation of tens of thousands of civilians since war began in 1991.
On Thursday, several dozen British paratroopers arrived in Sierra Leone from Dakar, Senegal, to give negotiators the option of a military rescue. Britain also has more than 200 soldiers based in Sierra Leone.
In Canterbury, England, British army spokesman Paul Beard said the hostages' families had been given advance warning of the rescue and were "delighted at the news."