Hostage rescue ends in tragedy: Briton executed by captors as special forces close in on Al Qaeda gang's lair
- British Chris McManus and Italian Franco Lamolinara were captured by kidnappers in May while working in northern Nigeria
- Two videos showing the hostages pleading for their lives while under armed guard were released by their captors
- PM David Cameron authorised the rescue mission as the pair's lives were in 'imminent and growing danger'
- But the kidnappers killed the two men as members of the Special Boat Service and Royal Marine commandos moved in on their hideout
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A British hostage was killed by his captors in Nigeria yesterday when a UK Special Forces rescue operation ended in tragedy.
Chris McManus was executed by gunmen as members of the Special Boat Service and Nigerian soldiers moved in on the Al Qaeda-inspired terrorists’ hideaway.
Fellow hostage, Italian Franco Lamolinara, was also killed. The pair had been held for ten months.
WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW
Captured: British Chris McManus, left, and Italian national Franco Lamolinara, right, in the first video released by their kidnappers in Nigeria in August last year
British hostage: Christopher McManus was killed by his captors yesterday as troops moved in to rescue him amid fears his life was in 'imminent and growing danger'
One of the terrorists said it would be the ‘last message’ to David Cameron about the hostage.
Yesterday the Prime Minister broke the news of the execution to Mr McManus’s family in a personal phone call before making a public statement in which he appeared emotional.
It is the second time he has ordered a hostage rescue mission that has failed. Scottish aid worker Linda Norgrove died when Special Forces tried to rescue her from the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Mr Cameron had also telephoned his Italian counterpart Mario Monti to tell him of the failed operation – but last night there was growing anger in Italy as it became clear that Rome was informed of the raid to free the hostages only once it had got underway.
Video plea: One of the hostages, believed to be Chris McManus, is seen pleading for his life as his armed captors stand behind him in the second video to be released by his kidnappers in December
Blindfolded: Mr McManus has a thick black blindfold placed over his eyes throughout the duration of the video
There were reports the men may have been held in a house in Sokoto, a city in Nigeria’s north-west.
One witness said: ‘The security agencies tried to break into the house but there was resistance. The people inside the house were shooting at them and they returned fire.’
The rescue was triggered when – after months of searching – the SBS found the heavily protected location where the men were being held.
Mr Cameron said authorities had decided to go ahead with the rescue after receiving ‘credible information about [the men’s] location’.
‘A window of opportunity arose to secure their release. We also had reason to believe that their lives were under imminent and growing danger,’ he insisted.
‘I am very sorry that this ended so tragically,’ he stressed, adding: ‘Terrorism and appalling crimes such as these are a scourge on our world. No one should be in any doubt about our determination to fight and to defeat them.’
Mr McManus, a contract worker for an Italian construction company, was kidnapped by gunmen in May last year after they stormed his apartment in Birnin-Kebbi in the north-west of Nigeria.
Mr Lamolinara, a 48-year-old father of two of Gattinara near Turin, was also taken. A German colleague escaped by scaling a wall despite being shot and injured.
Last night Mr McManus’s parents, two brothers and sister issued a statement thanking all involved in the attempted rescue.
It said: ‘We are of course devastated by the news of Chris’s death, which we received earlier today.
Members of the Special Boat Service, pictured here on a training exercise, were sent in to the kidnappers' hideout to try and rescue the two hostages
‘We are also aware of the many people who were working to try and have Chris returned to our family, and his girlfriend. We would like to thank all of them for their efforts.’
The family said they were confident ‘everything that could be done was being done’ during their ten-month ordeal and sent their condolences to relatives of the other dead hostage.’
The kidnapped men had been working on building a bank in the city, the capital of the lawless Kebbi province.
In August a Nigerian group calling itself ‘Al Qaeda in the land beyond the Sahel’ claimed responsibility for the kidnap and released the video showing Mr McManus, in a Manchester United shirt, with three men armed with Kalashnikov rifles and a machete.
He pleaded for the British Government to answer the demands of the group to save his life. One of the kidnappers then said the British Government had failed to answer its demands and it was given two weeks to ‘take the correct decision’.
Yesterday, security officials said they believed the kidnappers were from a splinter group of the Islamist militant group Boko Haram, which has links to Al Qaeda.
Sources said Ministry of Defence officials approached Mr Cameron on Wednesday evening and made it clear they believed there was a ‘time-limited opportunity’ to mount an attempt to free the men.
The Prime Minister took the decision to go ahead and then followed the operation ‘in real time’ yesterday morning. A meeting of the Government’s emergency committee Cobra was convened, but word came back that the two men had been killed by their captors.
The Italian prime minister’s office said that it had been ‘constantly in touch with British authorities but that the operation had got underway with the Nigerians and British forces with Italy informed once it had begun’.
Former Italian prime minister Massimo D’Alema said: ‘I want full light to be shed on why Italy was only informed once the operation had started.’
