Operation BARRAS: New revelations regarding the SAS hostage rescue in 2000.

A recently published article reveals aspects of the SAS hostage rescue operation in Sierra Leone that were covered-up by Tony Blair and his Government, including the true extent of the West Side Boys' casualties. Those with any knowledge of the operation will have been sceptical of the given number of rebel casualties, the original figure ~25 now jumping to 200+.

The trigger for the operation now appears to have been an SAS observation team witnessing the brutal sexual assault of at least one British hostage. Following the release and evacuation of the 7 remaining hostages, SAS operatives remained in the jungle for 4 hours seeking and killing those who remained or had escaped from the original assault, in which one SAS soldier was killed.

Controversially, the rules of engagement appear to have been almost non-existent and the rebel gang included some women and children. A captured survivor recalls laser sights moving across trees, undergrowth and walls of the camp whilst hiding, and hearing a British soldier say “Come out, West Side Boys, come out if you are a f****** man".

Soldiers took pictures posing alongside long rows of dead rebels. Corpses were then thrown out of helicopters into the Rokel river and buried in mass graves, though many were left lying around and some washed up in nearby villages.

The MoD released a statement saying: "‘The West Side Boys fought fiercely and engaged in sporadic follow-up fighting for some time while the UK forces were preparing for their self-extraction, having released the hostages."

Summary: Don't take British hostages.

Full article: www.dailymail.co.uk...

And did they do it again? No they didn't.

Good work by SF. They're not there to cuddle people.

I'm currently re-reading Tim Collins' "Rules of Engagement" atm so seeing a thread about this topic was interesting. For those lacking int about this operation, I recommend the book for the first few chapters that cover the context of the op and its execution.

Great find OP, and we should the SAS more to show to the world that messing with the UK is not the cleverest thing to do. But how many times are our SF used and we hear nothing?

This information has been placed in the public domain for a reason.

reply to post by Soshh


Interesting thread.

I recently watched a documentary about the hostage rescue which interviewed British soldiers and interviewed the leader of The West Side Boys, who stated that the soldiers who captured him hiding under a bed wanted to execute him, but that he was saved by a commanding officer.

If true, this would match with a report concerning Operation Nimrod, the Iranian Embassy Seige, when the surviving hostage-taker was reportedly and according to witnesses taken to be a hostage and was laid down in the embassy grounds alongside the other hostages, before a number of hostages recognised him as a hostage-taker.

At this point, it is alleged that SAS men then attempted to drag the surviving hostage-taker to be killed inside the embassy building, but that with journalists beginning to arrive, the hostage-taker was spared and is now to this day, serving a prison sentence being the only surviving hostage-taker.

Both the report from the Sierra Leone and the Iranian Embassy Seige puts the message across strongly that the SAS, if called in, will not take any prisoners.

The account of the Sierra Leone rescue being made public may be a warning put out to hostage-takers holding, or thinking of holding British citizens that they will be at risk of being pitted against the SAS, and it will not end nicely.

In particular, there are two British citizens currently held in Somalia, reportedly in seperate locations to make a rescue attempt harder. Perhaps the public release of accounts of the Sierra Leone rescue may be a warning to the hostage-takers.

reply to post by Regensturm


Yep, two of the terrorists in the Iranian Embassy Siege threw their weapons out of the window and one of them began frantically waving a white piece of cloth. It didn’t make a lot of difference! But our reputation for offering hostage-takers and terrorists nothing but failure and death is very useful indeed.

In the Christian Peacemaker Crisis, the SAS carried out 47 (irrc) individual combat raids until they had a colleague of the hostage-takers in their hands. They got a mobile phone number and rang them up, sending a message along the lines of “Leave the hostages where you are and we won’t come after you”. The big bad hostage-takers did as they were told.

Not only evidence of the spread of a hard-earned reputation but an example of how you can use it to get the desired effect without having to do anything at all!

reply to post by Soshh


A case of their reputation precedes them, and their reputation was gained through action.


And it does make me wonder how the situation regarding the British couple held (reportedly seperately making an attempt at rescue more challenging) in Somalia will turn out, and what will become of the British female aid worker (who as yet strangely continues to be unnamed and without a picture, anything to read into that?) apparently seized by gunmen in Afghanistan.

reply to post by Regensturm


It’s weird that you should mention them, I was just thinking about their situation before I came online. It does seem pretty bleak and I'm very surprised that they have lasted this long.

Here’s a couple of articles if you haven’t seen them already:

news.bbc.co.uk...
news.scotsman.com...

It’s disgraceful that the SBS were unable to do their job and an elderly couple is suffering terribly as a result of Whitehall indecisiveness. I have no doubt that the SBS would have done us proud.

I’m certain that there is some serious work being done to get hold of that "aid worker". The resources are all there and if previous situations such as this are anything to go by, a lot of bad people have had UKSF knocking on their door to get to this woman. Let’s hope she and the others are released unharmed asap.

Very interesting reading on here.

When you read about some of the things the Forces go through it really makes me proud to be British.

We might not be a big country, and we get mocked for not being loudmouthed or macho etc, but when things go pear shaped, you realise that allied/ British Forces do a great job.

those SAS must have cast iron Sandra Bullocks