British Free Captives in Raid on Sierra Leone Rebels

British paratroopers raided rebel bases in the jungle of Sierra Leone early Sunday, freeing six of their soldiers and a local officer who had been held hostage for two weeks.

A British soldier and 25 members of the renegade West Side Boys militia died in the fierce, 90-minute gun battle at the rebel bases about 45 miles east of Freetown, the capital of the West African nation, according to the British Ministry of Defense.

Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon said the decision to move in was made after negotiations for the captives’ release broke down and the rebel gang “threatened repeatedly to kill the hostages” and staged mock executions.

An additional 12 British soldiers were injured in the operation, but all of the hostages were rescued unhurt from the camp, where officials said they had been held in bamboo and mud huts with little food and water.

The freed hostages were taken to a British naval vessel in the Freetown harbor, where they were said to be suffering from physical and mental exhaustion.

Prime Minister Tony Blair called the mission a success and lauded the 150 troops who carried it out.

“This was an operation of immense danger in the face of armed resistance,” said Blair, who authorized the strike Saturday.

The raid also was cleared with Sierra Leonean President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, and the U.N. peacekeeping team was kept informed, British officials said.

“I cannot pay high enough tribute to the skill, the professionalism and the courage of the armed forces involved. Inevitably in such an operation as this, there are casualties,” Blair said, offering his prayers to the families of the slain and injured soldiers.

Three women fighters were among the rebel victims. British officials said the British forces captured 18 members of the West Side Boys, including gang leader “Brigadier” Foday Kallay. Others were said to have surrendered to U.N. troops.

The West Side Boys, former soldiers who helped briefly topple Kabbah, Sierra Leone’s elected leader, in 1997, seized 11 British soldiers on patrol Aug. 25 under circumstances that British officials say they still do not understand. Five of the captives were released Aug. 30, but British negotiators believed that the rebels had begun stringing them along in negotiations for the remaining six.

Hoon said that the West Side Boys had received a satellite telephone, food and medical supplies but that in the last meeting, Kallay began pressing for “quite unreasonable and unattainable political concessions.”

The mission began early Sunday when troops swooped in on the swampy bases by helicopter in a three-pronged attack. The hostages were quickly identified and removed within 20 minutes, but intense fighting continued for at least another hour.

Despite their reputation as a force of ragtag and drunken soldiers, British Chief of Defense Staff Charles Guthrie said, “the West Side Boys are not a pushover, they fought very hard.”

The militia has fought both the Sierra Leonean government and rebels of the country’s brutal Revolutionary United Front, led by the jailed Foday Sankoh.

The freed hostages are members of the 1st Irish Regiment, a team of British army trainers who are helping rebuild Sierra Leone’s defense force so that it can fight the rebels. Guerrillas have been responsible for the deaths and intentional mutilation of tens of thousands of civilians since war broke out in 1991.

Britain’s current involvement in Sierra Leone began in May, when it sent in troops to evacuate foreign nationals as Sankoh’s rebels advanced on the capital. The troops stayed on to bolster U.N. peacekeeping efforts and to try to restore stability to the former British colony. Currently, about 400 British troops are based in the country to help train and equip the Sierra Leonean army.