British troops attack rebel base, free hostages

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone - Launching a dawn strike on a swampy base belonging to a maverick army gang, British troops ended a two-week hostage drama Sunday and freed all six British officers and a Sierra Leonean soldier held captive. One British paratrooper was killed.

The rescue mission, authorized by British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Sierra Leone President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, was carried out after the captors ''threatened repeatedly to kill the hostages'' in this war-ravaged West African country, British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon said.

Helicopter-borne British paratroopers exchanged heavy fire with the Sierra Leone renegades, the West Side Boys, at their creekside base surrounded by mangrove swamps and jungle, British Chief of the Defense Staff General Sir Charles Guthrie said.

A paratrooper was killed while carrying out the rescue operation and another was seriously injured although his wounds were not considered life-threatening, a British Defense Ministry spokesman said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Another 11 British soldiers suffered less serious wounds.

''These casualties are regrettable, but are at the low end of the scale for such a difficult and complex operation,'' the spokesman said. ''Our thoughts are with the families of all those involved.''

Twenty-five members of the West Side Boys, including three women fighters, were also killed and 18, including gang leader ''Brigadier'' Foday Kallay, were captured by the British, the spokesman said.

A senior U.N. peacekeeping officer, Jordanian Brig. Ahmed Serhan, said an unknown number of renegades surrendered to U.N. troops.

Those who did not voluntarily give themselves up ''face the full penalty of the law,'' Sierra Leone Information Minister Julius Spencer warned without elaborating.

''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 rescue mission centered on the West Side Boys camp in the Occra Hills, where the hostages had been held since Aug. 25. The base is some 45 miles east of the capital, Freetown.

British paratroopers freed the hostages during the first 20 minutes of the operation by swooping into three strategic points near where the hostages were held, Guthrie said. Yet nine hours later, British army spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Tony Cramp said the mission was still continuing ''in its conclusive phase'' to retrieve British vehicles and weapons captured by the rebels. He did not elaborate.

Serhan said U.N. and British troops continued to patrol the area to assure there were no remaining pockets of renegades. Jordanian U.N. soldiers were reinforcing all roads into the area.

Britain coordinated closely with Sierra Leone government forces and the U.N. peacekeeping force here, said Brig. Gordon Hughes, commander of British forces in Sierra Leone. He said his troops carried out their task with ''surgical'' precision.

The rescue operation came weeks after the West Side Boys captured 11 British soldiers and a Sierra Leonean soldier Aug. 25. Five British officers were freed Aug. 30.

British officials feared for the safety of the hostages. The West Side Boys are a notoriously undisciplined faction with a reputation for widespread drunkenness and drug-use. The gang, which has fought both the Sierra Leone government and rebels of the country's brutal Revolutionary United Front, is accused of human rights atrocities including killing and mutilating civilians.

''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.

Despite their disorderliness, the West Side Boys put up a solid resistance, British officials said. Some women fought alongside the mostly male gang, Guthrie said.

''They fought a very determined fight and clearly are very capable. I think it would be a serious mistake to (dismiss) them as drug-crazed kids,'' Guthrie said.

The rescue mission took several days of planning and British negotiators had been prepared to abort the mission at the last moment in the event that talks began to bear fruit, Guthrie added.

The hostages are members of the 1st Irish Regiment, a team of British army trainers who are helping rebuild Sierra Leone's defense force so it can fight the country's RUF rebels. The rebel group is responsible 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.

Cramp said the freed hostages were receiving medical checkups from British military doctors and were all safely aboard the British navy vessel Sir Percivale berthed in Freetown's harbor.

Blair praised the forces carrying out the rescue and said his prayers were with the families of those involved.

''This was an operation carried out in circumstances of immense danger, in the face of armed resistance,'' the prime minister said.