SAS frees all four hostages in daring Afghanistan raid

June 3rd, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

The raid was ordered by commanders amid mounting fears that Miss Johnston and
the other three captives, who were seized on May 22, were in danger of being
killed or handed over to more dangerous terrorists.

Sources said it had been a “classic operation” that was “brilliantly executed”
after days of painstaking intelligence gathering.

The hostages’ exact location was pinpointed early last week using mobile phone
interception technology. Predator drones flying silently at 20,000ft kept
their captors under 24-hour surveillance.

International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF) commanders hoped initially
that the kidnapping would be resolved peacefully.

Shortly after the four women were seized, the kidnappers, who were known to
have close links to the Taliban, released a video in which they demanded a
£6million ransom and the release of a comrade.

But by Wednesday analysts had received intelligence that the hostages had been
split into two groups and were being held in separate caves in a forest in a
mountainous valley in Badakhshan, north-east Afghanistan.

Concern for the women’s safety increased when a member of the Taliban was
overheard in an intercepted mobile phone conversation pressurising the
kidnappers to put on a “show of intent”.

Mr Cameron was informed on Friday by Gen John Allen, the US Commander of ISAF
in Afghanistan, that the time had come for a military response to the
emergency. The Prime Minister gave his approval before briefing members of
Cobra, the Government’s emergency committee, on Friday afternoon.

The plan went into action almost straight away. The team of around 70 special
forces troops were already at a forward operating base in Badakhshan
province with a fleet of helicopters.

They flew to a pre-arranged rendezvous about two miles from where the hostages
were being held and marched two miles through thick forest, moving into
assault positions around the caves.

In Kabul, Gen Allen and his British deputy, Lt Gen Adrian Bradshaw, watched
the assault on video from a Predator drone and helmet cameras worn by the
soldiers. Around 7pm local time, the US and British troops stormed the two
caves, killing 11 kidnappers within minutes.

There was a moment of alarm when the US troops reported back that the cave
they had assaulted did not contain any hostages.

The tension was broken, however, when the SAS commander on the ground reported
that his team has successfully rescued all four hostages.

A military source said: “This was a classic operation. All the bases were
covered and it was executed brilliantly. The strike was made with surgical
precision — we were 95 per cent sure of the kidnappers’ exact location,
weapons and motives. The SAS and the US special forces were always ahead of
the game once the kidnappers’ position had been fixed.”

Lt Gen Bradshaw said: “This was an operation in very demanding terrain, high
mountains and deep gullies, and very arid and demanding. It was carried out
by immensely professional troops who applied precision, skill, and courage.”

In Downing Street yesterday, Mr Cameron said: “It was an extraordinarily
brave, breathtaking even, operation that our troops had to carry out. I pay
tribute to their skill and dedication.”

Miss Johnston, who completed an MSc in nutrition at the London School of
Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, had been working in Afghanistan with the
international aid charity Medair for a little over a year.

In a newspaper interview in November, she said: “Some of the things I have
seen I have had a very emotional reaction to. The children come to the
clinic draped in clothes, looking quite big, but then you roll up their
sleeve to measure them and you see their tiny little frames. They look
other-worldly.”

Her father, Philip, a theologian at Hughes Hall at Cambridge University, and
her mother, Patricia, said in a statement: “We are delighted and hugely
relieved by the wonderful news that Helen and all her colleagues have been
freed.

“We are deeply grateful to everyone involved in her rescue, to those who
worked tirelessly on her behalf, and to family and friends for their love,
prayers and support over the last 12 days.”

A soldier from 1st Bn, The Royal Welsh Regiment, has been killed by small arms
fire while on patrol in in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand Province.
His family have been informed.