Michael Evans, Jerome Starkey and James Hider in Kabul Gordon Brown approved a mission to rescue the British journalist Stephen Farrell in which a member of the Special Forces was killed this morning, The Times has learnt. Plans for the raid, in which Farrell’s Afghan interpreter, a civilian and dozens of Taleban fighters were also killed, were drawn up by British Special Forces commanders in Kabul during a weekend of secret planning. Lieutenant-General Jim Dutton, a Royal Marine and deputy commander of Nato’s International Security Assistance Force, headed the team and Mr Brown, David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, and Bob Ainsworth, the Defence Secretary, were kept informed of what was being planned. The Director Special Forces, a major-general who cannot be identified, has a direct phone link to the Prime Minister and would have informed Mr Brown in person of the risks involved. Whitehall sources confirmed that Mr Brown had given his approval for the rescue mission to go ahead. (Read More)
September 9, 2009 at 9:26pm Comments
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