British, Italian hostages killed in Nigerian rescue bid

residents reported an hours-long shootout

Might as well have just dropped bombs on the whole area. Once you lose the element of surprise, you basically condemn the hostages.

Fine for the Brit because the British don't deal with terrorists. But the Italian government might have liked to negotiate. They should have backed off when they lost the element of surpise.

failed rescue operation that too without consulting Italy? very sad.

Should have sent in SEALS Team 6 to do the job ...

Have you forgotten decades of Northern Ireland and the IRA? Terrorists siezes in London? The Brits have more history of dealing with terrorists than any other EU country.

I would have to disagree . The Irish themselves have a longer history of dealing with Terrorists deaths from both camps of the British/Irish divide on mainland Ireland.

Cameron said he had given the go-ahead for a rescue , I suspect that no British unit took part in the rescue operation because if it did two lives would have been saved.

zichi - I think wot he meant was is that they dont BARGAIN with terrorists, and that Italy more likely to pay them off.

There is a reaon you can't see Nigeria in holiday brochures

Sometimes one must take the window of opportunity to free victime of crime, sadly this time it failed. All involved did there best

Should have sent in SEALS Team 6 to do the job ...

edojin, you should try googling "Linda Norgrove" and cut down on the posturing - this isn't Hollywood.

edojin if they sent in Seal 6 team, they woulda ended up killing the hostages themselves

ahh someone beat me to it

Anyone who goes or has anything to do with these feral parts of the world does so knowing full well they could be in danger, but they still go in to work in the area or whatever.

They put others lives at risk trying to free/rescue them. Anyone who goes to these wild places should know they go without the hope of anyone coming to resuce them then they would think twice before selfishly putting others lives at risk.

Expect lots of thumbs down from the bleeding hearts brigade on here but hey !

In my opinion this rescue did not involve the British SAS. I am sure it was a bunch of over eager yet unprofessional Nigerian soldiers who went ahead in order to a) rescue the hostages, and b) try to prove to other Nations that Nigeria does have effective spec op's personnel...

Sad day, I feel sorry for the families...

Correction to the above... Apparently the rescue attempt included the Nigerian army supported by members of British SBS (Special Boat Service)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2112215/UK-hostage-killed-failed-rescue-attempt-involving-SBS-free-captors-Nigeria.html

Nigerian military is by and large extremely unprofessional, having lived there and had daily contact with them. Obviously, the SBS were not given full control. Condolences to the families.

Interesting to note how the article headline blanks out the islamic jihadist nature of the kidnapping and makes it a "Nigerian" issue.

WiliiB! Excellent point! More than Nigerian it is AlQeada Nigerian style making all of these problems!! Time to send in American drones and bomb the hell out of these evil bastard terrorists!!

ExportExpert: feral parts of the world

I liked the phrase.

I suspect it was carried out by regular Nigerian army types with U.K. intel backing it up to some extent. If this is the case, I would think a professional hostage rescue group would have performed better.

Still, a rescue is very risky business and can turn bad in an instant by something seemingly minor: noise, smells, animals, a captor changing of a routine, a disoriented hostage panicking. The U.K. probably decided on the rescue because the captors were close to killing the two hostages.

Pity it went wrong. There should be more of these rescue attempts rather than just paying kidnapprs off.

If there's still people who think rescue missions are cut and dry................

Sorry wasnt the Irish

The first car bomb may have been the one used for the assassination attempt on Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II in 1905 in Istanbul by Armenian separatists, in the command of Belgian anarchist Edward Jorris.

The Brits have more history of dealing with terrorists than any other EU country.

You seem to have misunderstood me. It was precisely Britian's history I was referring to. They don't deal/negotiate with terrorists/hostage takers. And that policy might have been appropriate when dealing with the IRA, but it may not be appropriate when dealing with extremist Muslim groups in Africa since they probably are not aware of Britian's policy. And its even more questionable when a non-British citizen life is on the line.

Some rescues just depend on luck. It demand good judgement from the military head to decide whether a rescue is feasible and how it should goes. It also demands wisdom from the political leader.

If I am ever kidnapped, and held by some terrorist loon, I'd want the military to attempt a rescue as well. Succeed or fail, it would be better to get killed attempting a rescue, then to be held, tortured, and probably eventually murdered.