Linda Norgrove’s attempted rescue

A number of you have sent me links to the story of the tragic attempted rescue of Linda Norgrove, a British aid worker who was kidnapped and held hostage by al Qaeda operatives. I resisted writing about it until allof the facts were in. The Telegraph writes about what is known now;

Two of the kidnappers attempted to escape from the compound but were cut down by the AC-130 monitoring the area with its highly sophisticated night vision equipment. As one of the assault teams move towards one of the building, one of the kidnappers opened fire with an AK47. Imagery obtained from a helmet mounted camera worn by one of the Seals revealed that a grenade was thrown into a room in a building, which may have also been where Miss Norgrove was being held captive. The battle raged on for a few more minutes before the last of the kidnappers were killed. As the dust settled and the smoke cleared, ST6 began searching for the aid worker. Miss Norgrove was found alive inside one of the buildings but with serious injuries.

Despite being given immediate medical treatment by the special forces medics, she died soon after. Beside her was the body of one of her kidnappers who had been almost blown in half by the force of an explosion. The injuries sustained by the kidnapper were far in excess of that expected from a grenade blast. The Sunday Telegraph understands that it is for this reason it was assumed that the aid worker was killed by a suicide bomber.

So she happened to be a room from which the SEALs were being attacked and they used a grenade to silence their attackers. It certainly wasn’t “bungled” as the Telegraph says – it was simply an unfortunate case of Norgrove being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Yeah, maybe it sounds like the SEALs shouldn’t have used grenades in the proximity of a room where Norgrove might have been, but RPGs pointed at you aren’t a good thing and demand immediate action.

Category: Military issues