British, Italian hostages killed in Nigeria before rescue operation could free them

Washington Post (AP)

8 March 2012

British, Italian hostages killed in Nigeria before rescue operation could free them

LONDON — Two Europeans held hostage in Nigeria by kidnappers claiming ties to al-Qaida were killed before rescuers could free them, authorities said Thursday.

The men — a Briton and an Italian — were killed by their captors. A Nigerian official said the two died in the crossfire during the rescue attempt, Prime Minister David Cameron said.

One British and one Italian hostage held in Nigeria have been killed during a rescue attempt by Nigerian and U.K. forces, British Prime Minister David Cameron said Thursday, March 8, 2012. Chris McManus and Franco Lamolinara were captured in northern Nigeria in May 2011.

Chris McManus and Franco Lamolinara were taken captive in May. The pair had been working on a bank construction project in Nigeria, a country that has seen a rise in violence linked to the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram.

Britain’s Foreign Office confirmed two men were held by terrorists associated with Boko Haram, and a senior British government official said the kidnappers appeared to be from an al-Qaida-linked cell within Boko Haram, but not within the group’s main faction.

The British prime minister said that after months of not knowing where the men were, U.K. authorities had “received credible information about their location.” Believing the men’s lives were in “imminent and growing danger,” a rescue operation was mounted, Cameron said.