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Saturday, March 10, 2012

UK And Italy In A Diplomatic Row Over Failed Rescue Attempt Of Citizens In Nigeria

The UK and Italy were embroiled in a diplomatic row last night over the deaths of a British and Italian hostage in a failed rescue bid in Nigeria.

Italy's president Giorgio Napolitano branded Downing Street's failure to inform Rome "inexplicable".
According to Herald Scotland:

British construction worker Chris McManus, of Oldham, Greater Manchester, and his Italian colleague Franco Lamolinara died on Thursday as Nigerian troops and the UK's Special Boat Service (SBS) tried to end their nine months in captivity.

The bid was apparently brought forward because the kidnappers – believed to be members of a jihadi group associated with al Qaeda – became aware the net was closing around them.

There were reports of a fierce firefight after the house in the north-western town of Sokoto was surrounded.

No 10 said contacts had taken place between the governments as the operation got under way, and that David Cameron later spoke to Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti by phone after it was learned the hostages were dead.

Mr Cameron's spokesman said he was not aware of any request from Rome to halt the operation or of any complaint from Mr Monti during the phone call.

Mr Cameron did not offer any apology for the way in which the mission unfolded.

It had been clear for some time that one option was an attempt to rescue the two men, and Downing Street was not aware of Italy raising any objection to a possible mission, according to the spokesman.

Mr Monti disclosed the lack of warning in a statement in which he said UK and Nigerian authorities had determined the operation was the "last window of opportunity to save the hostages' lives".

Mr Napolitano said: "The behaviour of the British Government in not informing Italy is inexplicable. A political and diplomatic clarification is necessary."

But Mr Cameron's spokesman told reporters at a regular Westminster briefing: "We had been in contact with the Italians on a regular basis over the past nine months. We have had many, many meetings in the UK on this issue. There have been around 20 meetings of Cobra to discuss this particular case and throughout that period we have been in contact with the Italians.

"An option was always a rescue operation. We have been keeping them informed throughout."

He added: "Things moved quite quickly in recent days and we had to respond to that. The Prime Minister was asked for authorisation and gave that authorisation, but this was a Nigerian-led operation.

"In any situation such as this, we need to take the advice of those people on the ground closest to the situation. Their very strong advice was that it was important to act and to act quickly and that that was the best chance of getting these people out.

"Early indications are that both men were murdered by their captors before they could be rescued."

Defence Secretary Philip Hammond directly contradicted the Italian president's comments. He said: "Well it isn't inexplicable. It's completely explicable what happened. It's very unfortunate, but it's completely explicable."

Asked why the Italian authorities were not consulted, he said: "The Italian Government was kept informed throughout the operation as the intelligence emerged and then as the decision was taken to act, the Italian authorities were informed."

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