Libya: Daring SAS mission rescues Britons and others from desert

[Turborama]

Source: The Guardian

Saturday February 26 2011 20.25 GMT

More than 150 workers were dramatically rescued from the Libyan desert as two RAF Hercules aircraft – backed by the SAS – pulled off a high-risk evacuation of British and other citizens.

=snip=

It is believed that units of British special forces secured runways south of Benghazi to allow the Hercules aircraft to land safely.

=snip=

Last night the Foreign Office – which had been heavily criticised earlier in the week for being slow to get people out – said that up to 500 Britons remained in desert camps. "Nothing is complete yet," said a spokesman. Meanwhile HMS Cumberland was on its way back to Benghazi to evacuate the last Britons from the rebel-held city.

Plans for the emergency operation, carried out with the help of the SAS and members of the Special Boat Service who had been on standby in Malta, were finalised at a meeting of the government's emergency committee, Cobra. Government sources said the operation had been hazardous and complex, because the desert compounds were under threat from armed gangs and contained nationals from many countries.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/26/britons-rescued-libya-desert-raf

[hedgehog]

1. Bunch of show boats

Nice that the people got out.

[Ghost Dog]

2. "Nothing is complete yet,"

Hush.

[dipsydoodle]

3. desert compounds were under threat from armed gangs ?

That isn't exactly how it came over when they first interviewed , by telephone , one those affected at a base . It was just the local tribesmen with their AK47's who were grabbing whatever they could including the food presumably because they hadn't got any themselves.

"Armed gangs" they may have been in effect but the general expression over states the situation and gives the wrong impression.

:hi:

[HEyHEY]

4. If that's all they were then why was SAS called to rescue these people?

They were in a gang, they were armed. Sounds like the facts to me. Perhaps they could just re-tool their wording to say something like "Armed gangs looking for supplies" but still.

[dipsydoodle]

5. I was quoting

from a live telephone call to one of TV news stations here.

The reason they needed to be evacuated in this way was that all of their vehicles ,both at the UK and German bases ,had been stolen and they had no alternative means of transport. They also considered it be unsafe to travel anyway.

In the normal course of events the locals probably wouldn't have had the nerve to do this.

[HEyHEY]

6. Yeah, I wouldn't really be looking forward to highway travel in Libya right now

not exactly route 66

[Ghost Dog]

7. Route 66! Ha ha.

Makes me think, 'rednecks'... And, what was the number of that other famous highway, leading north out of Kuwait City? Ah, I see there were two: http://deoxy.org/wc/wc-death.htm

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. Someone shot at one of the planes

The Ministry of Defence said: "We can confirm that during the operation to recover civilians from the Libyan desert, one of our C130 aircraft appears to have suffered minor damage consistent with small arms fire.

"There were no injuries to passengers or crew and the aircraft returned safely to Malta."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12592849

which sounds a bit more than 'looking for supplies'.