KEY POINTS:
Fears were growing yesterday that the Britons linked to the Embassy in Ethiopia who were taken hostage may be the victims of Islamist fighters connected to al Qaeda rather than opportunist robbers.
What began last Friday as a criminal kidnapping has become a matter of national security being dealt with at the highest level. The full extent of the difficulties facing British authorities attempting to rescue the five men and women began to emerge with growing evidence that they may have been political targets.
The vehicles used by the British Embassy staff and their relatives were found abandoned by the roadside in Hamedali, in the Afar region of Ethiopia. They had bullet and burn marks on the bodywork, but belongings including mobile telephones, luggage and shoes had been left behind.
A Foreign Office spokesman said the discovery of the cars was "distressing".
The failure to take lucrative items has led diplomats to believe that monetary gain may not have been the primary aim of the kidnappers. Sources close to the investigation also said there had not been any verifiable demand so far for large sums of money. There were, they added, "patterns of behaviour" by the armed group which caused grave concern.
As speculation turned to a possible rescue mission, the Daily Mirror reported that 60 SAS soldiers had already arrived in Dijibouti. The British Ministry of Defence has refused to comment. The newspaper says the unit are members of the SAS's Standby Squadron, troops set up to respond to crises around the world at a moment's notice.
Unmanned US Predator aircraft from the American base in Djibouti are said to have carried out aerial searches. British and American authorities refused to discuss the missions.
Armed supporters of the fundamentalist Islamist Courts regime in Somalia are known to have taken refuge in Eritrea after their defeat by American-backed Ethiopian forces in a lightning offensive at the end of last year. They include two leaders, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys and Aden Hashi Ayro, who the US and Britain accuse of having links with al Qaeda. The Americans suspected the Islamic militants in Somalia of sheltering al Qaeda suspects wanted for the 1998 US Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.
The Ethiopian Government has accused forces from Eritrea, which supported the Islamist regime in Mogadishu, of carrying out the abductions of the Britons. The claims have been vehemently denied by Eritrea. Senior diplomatic and military sources acknowledge that any Islamist group responsible for the kidnappings could have done so without the knowledge of the Eritrean Government.
The Ethiopian Government has said that five of its nationals have been found. Hussein Idriss, one of the guides, said the group had been captured by men wearing Eritrean uniforms.
- INDEPENDENT
