Three European soldiers captured by Gaddafi's forces
Published:
March 3, 2011 at 8:23am
Three marines from The Netherlands were captured by Gaddafi’s forces last weekend, while they were trying to evacuate two men from Sirte, using a helicopter that had taken off from a frigate.
The Defence Ministry in The Netherlands confirmed the news after it was broken by the daily newspaper De Telegraaf yesterday. It said that “intensive diplomatic talks are taking place for the release of the prisoners”.
The frigate, which had been headed towards Somalia for an anti-piracy operation, was diverted to Libya when the crisis broke out.
De Telegraaf said that the news of the marines being taken prisoner was not broken earlier because of security reasons.
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Bdejna bil-kumplikazjonijiet. The longer it takes, the uglier it gets. Poor marines. I can just imagine their treatment and eventual fate.
A word of caution to local enterprise deployed in the humanitarian/evacuation operations. I would not be surprised if the Libyan government retaliates against Maltese enterprise in a similar fashion. It would be foolish if any commercial operation is not suitably protected in a war zone.
Does ‘Maltese enterprise’ engage the services of marines or fly helicopters off frigates to rescue people from Libya?
Good morning. I think Village was refering to the trips of Virtu, and not ‘enterprise’ as in the generic sense. Even if it should be obvious that the ‘Maltese enterprise’ should know what they are doing and do not need our ‘word of caution’.
Village, vera ghandek mentalita’ tar-rahal.
Daphne
Dan Il- bniedem mhux ta’ min jafdah! Ma nafx id- dinja x’qed tistenna? Min jaghmel atti b’hal dawn ikun qed jibza hafna. Jiena rajtu kemm il- darba jaghmel diskorsi bla sens. Li jiskantani hu li m’ghandux naqra sens ta’ htija, giddieb mad-dinja kollha u ma jriedx icedi, hu issa li tilef 90% tal- battalja jigi jaqa u iqum mid-disstuzjoni umana.
Since I’ve been nominated as resident correspondent on defence matters, let’s add a bit of depth to the story.
The helicopter, a Lynx, had taken off from Royal Dutch Navy frigate Hr. Ms. Tromp, which was in Malta few days ago. The helicopter in question is NRN 277, and three “soldiers” captured were the aircrew. It seems that one of them is a woman (this is no irrelevant, because it adds leverage to the Dutch government’s demands for their return).
The helicopter had gone into Sirte to evacuate two European nationals, who were also captured. They’ve since been released, and have now left Libya. Sirte is Gaddafi’s birthplace, so the mission was near-suicidal, especially since it involved a single helicopter, with no escort, and no backup troops or anything. God knows what the Dutch were thinking. I’d say it was an in extremis situation for them to have gone in in this manner.
As a point of interest, the soldiers are not marines (mariniers), but sailors (matrozen). Even the Dutch media are getting it wrong.