Two hostages, a Briton and an Italian, held by Islamist militants in Nigeria have been killed in a firefight while British special forces were trying to rescue them.
Members of the Special Boat Service and Royal Marines were alongside Nigerian troops in the operation at Sokoto when Chris McManus fromnorthwest England and Franco Lamolinara lost their lives.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said the two men were "murdered by their captors" and insisted he had authorised the mission yesterday because "a window of opportunity arose to secure their release. We also had reason to believe that their lives were under imminent and growing danger".
The Independent understands intercepted telephone calls had revealed that the group which had seized 28-year-old McManus and Lamolinara were planning to "sell" them to a more hardline faction who may well have executed them.
British and Nigerian negotiators had been talking intermittently with the kidnappers who called themselves "al-Qaeda in the land beyond the Sahil" to obtain the release of the two men. However, "third parties" began to get involved in the talks, raising fears that the group may not be in control of their victims for much longer.
"Al-Qaeda in the land beyond the Sahil" is believed to be part of the Boko Haram group which carried out a string of recent attacks in Nigeria in which dozens of people had been killed. Officials say the demands they had made for the release of the men, which included release of prisoners, were "confused".
The two hostages are said to have been shot dead by the kidnappers during the early part of the operation, when two of the kidnappers were also killed. McManus and Lamolinara had been involved in the construction of the state headquarters for the Central Bank of Nigeria. They had been working for an Italian construction firm based in Abuja, when they were kidnapped last December from their apartment.
