Italy slams Britain over Nigeria failed hostage rescue bid

ROME  - Italy on Friday condemned as "inexplicable" Britain's failure to warn it ahead of time of an operation to rescue a pair of British and Italian hostages in Nigeria that resulted in their deaths.

"The behaviour of the British government, which did not inform or consult with Italy on the operation that it was planning, really is inexplicable," President Giorgio Napolitano told reporters a day after the assault.

"There needs to be a political and diplomatic clarification," he said. His comments reflected growing anger in Italy over the botched rescue, as witnesses in Sokoto in northwestern Nigeria described a British-Nigerian operation involving 100 troops, military trucks and a helicopter.

The witnesses said they saw an intense gun battle that lasted for several hours and that at least two hostage-takers were killed in the operation.

Britain said Italian engineer Francesco Molinara, 48, and his British colleague Chris McManus, 28, were shot by their captors during the assault.

Eyewitnesses cast doubt, however, on Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan's assertion that the kidnappers are from Islamist group Boko Haram, which has waged a violent campaign mainly in the country's northeast.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has in recent years claimed kidnappings of foreign workers in countries including Niger, which borders Nigeria to the north, but never in Nigeria. Sokoto state borders Niger.

Italy's top-selling Corriere della Sera daily said in an editorial: "The tragic episode in Nigeria is unbelievable. Italians are clearly humiliated... It is an unacceptable slap in the face and saying sorry is not enough. "Britain is still behaving... with a nostalgia for imperial glory," it said, adding: "In military affairs, it acts with a sense of superiority."

The Repubblica daily said the incident was "a blow for Italy's new-found international credibility" and the Il Sole 24 Ore newspaper cited government sources saying there was "a real chill in relations between Rome and London."

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti meanwhile held security talks with Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi in Rome to discuss the failed operation.

The meeting "carried out an in-depth examination of the most recent information obtained by security services" on the incident, a statement said.

The Italian government said Monti was only informed by Cameron once the operation was under way as he was flying back to Rome from a visit to Belgrade. The claim was confirmed by Cameron's spokesman in London on Friday. "We contacted the Italians yesterday as the operation was getting under way, but this was a very fast-moving situation," the spokesman said.

Speaking in Copenhagen, Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague said there had been "limited time" and too many "constraints" to consult Italy.

The Italian government said on Thursday that it had been working in collaboration with Britain and Nigeria from the moment the men were kidnapped, but that the bid to rescue them had been unexpectedly sped up.

"Fearing that the hostages' lives were in imminent danger, the Nigerian authorities launched the operation with British support, informing the Italian authorities once it was already in process," the government said.

Italy said the operation "tragically ended with the murder of the hostages by the kidnappers, according to the British version of what happened."

President Jonathan said some of the hostage-takers were arrested.

While officials gave few details about the operation or those involved, newspapers in London said it had included members of the British elite forces Special Boat Service (SBS) who had been in Nigeria for a fortnight.

Raffaello Matarazzo from the Institute of International Affairs in Rome said Italy's exclusion from the decision-making was "a serious diplomatic incident".

The diplomatic slight "comes at a moment when Italy is improving its image on the international stage and the government is clawing back trust among its European partners," he said.

Cameron said the two hostages had been held by "terrorists" who had made "very clear threats to take their lives", and the captives had been in "imminent and growing danger".

AFP received a video showing McManus and Lamolinara in August. In the footage, both men said their kidnappers were from Al-Qaeda.

In a second video received by a Mauritanian news agency and seen by AFP in December, gunmen threatened to execute McManus if their demands were not met.

The two hostages were kidnapped by heavily armed men who stormed their apartment in Kebbi state in May 2011. They had been helping build a central bank building in the city and worked for construction firm Stabilini Visinoni.