Posted on 03/05/2011 10:11:55 PM PST by Doofer
Libyan rebels have captured a British special forces unit in the east of the country after a secret diplomatic mission to make contact with opposition leaders backfired, Britain's Sunday Times reported. The team, understood to number up to eight SAS soldiers, were intercepted as they escorted a junior diplomat through rebel-held territory, the newspaper said. The Foreign Office said in a brief statement it could neither "confirm or deny" the report. Earlier on Saturday the Geneva-based Human Rights Solidarity group, which employs a number of Libyan exiles, told Reuters by telephone that a team of "eight special forces personnel" had been seized by rebels. Both the Ministry of Defence and Foreign Office repeatedly declined to comment on the group's report. The SAS intervention apparently angered Libyan opposition figures, who ordered the soldiers locked up on a military base, according to the Sunday Times. Opponents of longtime Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi fear he could use any evidence of Western military intervention to rally patriotic support away from a two-week-old uprising against his 41-year autocratic rule. Citing Libyan sources, the Sunday Times said the special forces troops were taken by rebels to Benghazi, Libya's second largest city and epicentre of the insurrection, and hauled before one of its most senior politicians for questioning. The paper said the junior diplomat they were escorting was preparing the way for a visit by a more senior colleague ahead of establishing diplomatic relations with the rebels. The Sunday Times said Libyan opposition officials were said to be trying to hush up the incident for fear of a backlash from ordinary Libyans.
(Excerpt) Read more at af.reuters.com ...
I am taking the position that the British Government and BP have a close working relationship. Notice I said British which includes the Scots and explains the Lockerbie terrorist release of 2009. Eight SAS soldiers are tough hombres and would not allow themselves (at least not ALL eight) to be taken captive that easily unless under orders to do so. They are there to negotiate something in the favor of BP and the British Government, possibly in that order.
It is entirely possible that they are being held be a different faction of rebels than the one the represented by the guy they were escorting around, and they thought the representative was an usurper and should be shot.
I thought someone said they have been released...true?
I am truly confused:
“Libyan rebels have captured a British special forces unit in the east of the country after a secret diplomatic mission to make contact with opposition leaders backfired”
Aren’t the Libyan reels the opposition? Aren’t the rebels the exact ones the Brits wanted to make contact with?
1943: Monty / Patton
2011: Monty Python
HELL NO !! Are you daft !!?? They're Muslims - aka OUR ENEMY in this 3rd Islamic War.
Let the Mussies kill one another then we will have less to deal with.
Lest anyone forget the real rules of engagement - when the dust settles over there, there will another Sharia state(s) and we will then have another enemy to destroy. ,
I decided to put my daily AOL News link here as the Libya Live Thread is no longer on the right side list. A lot about the action at BenJwad (retaken by Q?), RasLanuf and Misrata (seem to be resisting effectively). Also on the British guys. Looking at the map it seems that Qadaffi is trying to cut off the rebels who are advancing on his hoped for future capital at Sirte. BJ separates RL from Benghazi. The rebels advancing are between RL and Sirte. Misrata separates Tripoli from Sirte. At Misrata, the defenders cleverly allowed the advancing loyalists deep into the city and then counterattacked.
http://www.aolnews.com/2011/03/06/libyan-forces-battle-rebels-advancing-toward-capital/
On being truly confused: Here is a link I posted last night at the Libya Live Thread. It goes into considerable detail regarding the tribal situation and loyalties in Libya. I looked at a number of items under Google “Libya Tribal Groups” or something like that. This seemed to be one of the better ones. How big these tribes are? Figures vary in different articles. In cities there are apparently several tribes, perhaps with different agendas.
OBVIOUSLY...
Why isn't the mass media asking simple questions like:
Why are there Libyan refugees when the people are the ones supposedly 'protesting'?
How can a peaceful group of Libyan citizens without weapons, training, and organization be engaged in an armed conflict with the Libyan military?
Why do peaceful 'protestors' request a no-fly zone?
Thanks for the update. This pseudo civil war is going to rage for a long time, assuming the anti-government forces continue to grow.
Thank you
what an excellent article
it makes sense now
the things we don’t know about the ME
Wow
Interesting news from Libya......
Professional soldiers trying to organize volunteer anti-Qaddafi fighters struggle to instill concepts like discipline, organisation. via web
Retired Libya special forces captain tells me he’s trying to teach volunteers “it’s impossible to attack artillery with a kalishnikov” via web
The pro gaddafi troops made up of mercenaries and also had ladies holding their children as human shields so they could not shoot
Journalists have been talking with Gaddafi “supporters” in Green sq half aren’t Libyan, ~80% are police/soldiers
stark reality of the fighting in Zawarhi earlier....
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8362514/Amateur-video-of-deadly-clashes-in-Zawiyah.html
One day Brits can’t get enough of old Disco Muslim and the next they are they want him gone. Brits are sad and pathetic.
I guess this means that Kadafi won’t be giving any more millions to the London School of Economics.
Personally, if I wanted to train the rebels in order to help them topple the gov’t, I would set this up. If the rebels were smart, they would get the Brits to help.
The Libyans would have trouble seizing 8 Boy Scouts. I don’t know whether the SAS is the best there is, but they’re pretty damn close to the best. I’ll wait to hear what really happened.
#13: Yep. No carrier, no Harriers, not force projection. The British Lion has had its last important tooth pulled. They are toast.
Prayers for their safe and speedy return.
Now paging Andy McNabb. Now paging the leader of Bravo Two Zero. If you've ever read this moving story of the capture of an SAS Team during Gulf War #1, you'll understand the correctness of your statement. Kind of like the responses of our SEALs when they'd realized that they'd lost one of their own out the back ramp of an in-flight CH-47D who bounced right into the middle of an Afghan insurgent stronghold. That fight soon became known as the Battle for Robert's Ridge. When the SEALs went back after one of their own they well and truly kicked A$$! They were too late to save their brother, but they made the enemy pay for his life, heavily. I expect the SAS will do something similar. Andy McNab once made the comment that if ever recognized any of his captors on a city street anywhere in the world, he'd "slaught" them on the spot.
Your analysis is 100% spot on. The problem with this uprising is that its all very spontaneous but also very amorphous. Do you know the names of any of the opposition leaders? Basically the British were trying to contact someone they can deal with in the rebel setup, and as you say, they rebels are a bit suspicious and detained them for a while. There's nothing more to it than that, EXCEPT, that because it got reported Gaddaffi knows the Brits are trying to contact the Libyan opposition and therefore (in his mind) betraying him. He probably could have guessed they were anyway, but its different if you actually KNOW.
They are - but the point is that no one can deal with the rebels very easily because no-one knows who they exactly are, or who is leading them (if anyone). You have to send people in to make contact, and the rebels are very jumpy (unsurprisingly). Its a storm in a tea cup.
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