UK lays siege to Sierra Leone base where hostages held

UK lays siege to Sierra Leone base where hostages held
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

LONDON, SEPT 10: British forces on Sunday attacked the rebel base where six British soldiers were being held hostage in Sierra Leone, General Sir Charles Guthrie, Chief of Britain's Defence staff, said.

"We think it's good news. We decided to attack the place where the hostages were being kept at half past six this morning. So the situation is still very confused, there is fighting going on," Guthrie told BBC's Breakfast with Frost.

"But the first indications are that the hostages are safe. I don't know what condition they are in, but they are safe. I don'T know whether we've had any casualties...But I do caution everybody, they have some way to go yet."

The West Side Boys, renegade former soldiers who briefly toppled elected President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah in 1997, seized 11 British soldiers and an officer of the new Sierra Leone Army on August 25. They subsequently freed five of the soldiers.

The kidnapped British soldiers were members of a special force training the new Sierra Leone Army.

-- Reuters