World News 31-08-2000 Sierra Leone: Five British Soldiers Released who: Eleven British soldiers what: Five released as negotiations with West Side Boys continue where: Sierra Leone when: Yesterday snippet: "Renegade soldiers in Sierra Leone last night released five of the 11 British troops they abducted last Friday," reports The Guardian, "but the army was unable to say whether the other hostages are likely to be freed soon." "We are obviously delighted with the fact that we now have five of the soldiers that had been detained back in UK hands," said spokesman Lieutenant-Commander Tony Cramp yesterday. "Obviously our thoughts and concerns remain with those that are still being held and we are hopeful that they will be released shortly as well". "The Army did not give any details of what, if any, concessions had been made to the gunmen," says The Telegraph`s Anton La Guardia, who describes rebel captors the West Side Boys as "a group of drugged and drunken thugs of ambiguous loyalty". The eleven men of the Royal Irish Regiment were - according to the Ministry of Defence - making a routine trip from their base at Benguema to the Jordanian peacekeeping battalion at Masiaka. But yesterday, Brigadier General Mohammed Garba, the Nigerian acting UN commander, complained that British troops frequently "go out on their own patrols to do their own thing" and described their unsanctioned missions as "Rambo movements". [... more]

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