Special Forces' nighttime raid thwarted by Afghan captors

UNDER the cover of darkness in a remote valley in eastern Afghanistan, US Special Forces descended on a small group of mud-walled buildings.It was the beginning of a dangerous mission that, only a few hours before, had received approval through a late-night phone call from Downing Street.

• A night vision camera captures Special Forces on manoeuvres in Afghanistan. The expertise of US forces failed to rescue Norgrove after a firefight in which at least six insurgents were killed Picture: Getty Images

Acting on new intelligence, Nato Special Forces had pinpointed the whereabouts of Linda Norgrove to within a few feet. The Scottish aid worker, they insisted, was being held near a community known as Danish Gal in the lawless Kunar province.

Time was of the essence. Officials had raised concerns that she might be smuggled into nearby Pakistan or sold on to more extremist groups.

Only last month, General David Petraeus, the commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, said that al-Qaeda was trying to expand its presence in the province.

Late on Friday, Prime Minister David Cameron and Foreign Secretary William Hague were informed of the latest developments and gave their approval for a rescue operation to begin.

Before dawn could break, US Special Forces, supplemented with advice from British officials, arrived in the small, isolated hamlet, and stormed into one of the compounds

As they rushed into the building, a firefight broke out and at least six insurgents were killed. But when the small-arms fire fell silent, it became clear that the mission had failed.

Norgrove was discovered fatally wounded. How and when the 36-year-old from Lewis was fatally injured remained unclear last night, but sources suggested that one of the captors had detonated a suicide bomb vest.

"There was nothing about her injuries that suggested (the] International Security Assistance Force caused her death," said an official familiar with the operation. "She was killed by an explosion, probably caused by a suicide vest, held by one of the attackers."

It was a tragic end to an ordeal which lasted close to two weeks. It began around 10.30am on 26 September, when Norgrove, an aid worker for Development Alternatives Inc, was abducted by armed insurgents.

They had been travelling in a two-vehicle convoy along the main road linking Jalalabad to Asadabad in the remote and mountainous Kunar province.

The Scot had been based in Afghanistan for about four years over two stints, and spoke fluent Dari, an Afghan version of Persian. A committed environmentalist, her work in the country involved supervising agricultural projects, and the construction of roads, bridges, and markets.

Much of her time was spent trying to persuade local farmers to abandon poppy production and move to legal crops.

On the day of her abduction, she was en route to a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Salar Canal, a 24km waterway providing irrigation for up to 8,500 farming families. It is believed that Norgrove was wearing a burqa to mask her foreign identity.

Afghan police pursued the kidnappers into a bleak mountain pass, but lost them after a brief firefight. Three Afghan nationals – two drivers and a guard – who had also been captured were later released.

General Khalilullah Ziayee, the police chief in Kunar, said his staff had not been informed beforehand about the aid group's movements.

Officials later recovered two Toyota Corollas, which are not thought to have been armoured. Ordinarily, most contractors with Norgrove's organisation travel in convoys of armoured vehicles with private security contractors, but some aid workers opt for a low-profile approach to avoid attracting attention.

Within 24 hours, contact was made with a group claiming responsibility for the abduction. Mohammed Osman, a Taleban commander, insisted Norgrove would be handed over only in exchange for Aafia Siddiqui. The Pakistani neuroscientist was jailed for 86 years the previous week by a New York court for the attempted murder of US agents and soldiers who were trying to interrogate her in Afghanistan.

Speaking to an Islamic news agency based in the Pakistan city of Peshawar, Osman boasted: "We are lucky that we abducted this British woman so soon after the ruthless ruling by an American court on Aafia Siddiqui. We will demand the release of Siddiqui in exchange for her."

Despite Osman's claims, some Afghan sources said they had never heard of him. The real suspect, they suggested, was a local Taleban commander by the name of Maulavi Abdul Basir, who had repeatedly kidnapped and released aid workers in the past.

Meanwhile, back in Lewis, the aid worker's parents decided to film an appeal that they hoped would lead to the release of their daughter.

Only days after her abduction, John and Lorna Norgrove sat side by side at their bungalow in the remote village of Mangersta on the Atlantic coast, addressing the captors directly. They explained how much their daughter meant to them, and how desperate they were to see her again.

In the wake of the ambush, the Foreign Office requested a media blackout on her identity, believing Norgrove would be seen as more valuable to her kidnappers if her name was known to the public.

But speaking to the press at the time, John Norgrove said he and his wife were doing "everything we can" to work with the Foreign Office. The film, made by a production company on Lewis, was passed on to officials, but due to the delicate nature of negotiations, it was not broadcast.

It has since transpired that along with the talks through tribal channels, Nato soldiers and Afghan security forces were scouring the province in search of Norgrove.

One senior al-Qaeda commander was killed by IASF forces in an airstrike, while at least 17 insurgents were killed and several others arrested in clearing operations.

Less than 36 hours after she was snatched, Afghan police said they witnessed US Special Forces rappelling out of helicopters in a mountain pass close to where they thought Norgrove was being held.

It remains uncertain whether Norgrove was held in captivity in the one location, with suggestions that her abductors transported her from village to village in Kunar's inhospitable environs.

Any search of the region proved a formidable undertaking, as it has been home to some of the fiercest fighting in the country during the nine-year war.

With a fierce geography consisting of mountain ranges and areas of dense forest, it is virtually ruled by militants, tribal elders and clans. Various armed groups are known to operate in the area, with gangs sometimes targeting foreigners for ransom demands, or selling them on to militant groups.

Indeed, Pakistani officials have even claimed Kunar is the place where the elusive Osama bin Laden is hiding.

The full details of the failed rescue mission will no doubt be scrutinised in the days to come. Last night, British sources said the raid was an American operation launched with the full blessing of the British government.

"It was a US operation, but we were involved in it, we knew about it and we had agreed to it," said an official in Kabul.

The dramatic events of Friday night hold echoes of a similar rescue last year which left a British soldier and an Afghan journalist dead.

British Special Forces launched an operation in Kunduz, in northern Afghanistan, after reporter Stephen Farrell and his Afghan colleague Sultan Munadi were kidnapped while investigating the aftermath of an airstrike which left more than 100 civilians dead.

Some of Farrell's colleagues, as well as intermediaries working to secure the journalist's release, were highly critical of the decision to launch a military operation as they said negotiations were going well. That anger was exacerbated when the soldiers left Munadi's body at the scene.

With an investigation underway into the circumstances of Norgrove's death, there is for the moment only grief for a woman who even spent her holidays in Afghanistan and gave everything trying to help some of its poorest people.