Ministers gave Afghan rescue mission greenlight

Thursday, 10 September 2009 12:00 AM

By Alex Stevenson

Gordon Brown, David Miliband and Bob Ainsworth gave the final go-ahead for the mission which saw a kidnapped British-Irish journalist rescued in Afghanistan, No 10 has said.

Downing Street confirmed this morning that foreign secretary Mr Miliband and defence secretary Mr Ainsworth approved the mission to free New York Times correspondent Stephen Farrell from captivity.

A UK soldier, two civilians and respected Afghan journalist Sultan Munadi died yesterday in the mission. Army officials have privately questioned whether the operation should have been launched.

The decision to give the rescue mission the greenlight came after an emergency meeting of Cobra.

Mr Brown was also consulted before the final decision was taken by Mr Miliband and Mr Ainsworth.

"The regret is there is any loss of life at all. but these are very challenging and very difficult operations," the prime minister's spokesman told journalists.

"These [operations] are very carefully planned. These decisions are not taken lightly."

Mr Farrell, 46, was taken hostage along with Mr Munadi when they tried to visit the site of a Nato air-strike on two hijacked oil tankers that reportedly left dozens of civilians dead.

Writing on his blog he said Mr Munadi, who was acting as his interpreter, "died trying to save me".

The prime minister's role in approving the fatal operation remains unclear.

Downing Street was unable to confirm whether approval for special forces operations automatically rests in No 10's hands, while it is not clear whether Mr Miliband and Mr Ainsworth could have approved the mission without Mr Brown's backing.

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• defence
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• foreign policy
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• middle east