Hostages 'escape Algeria captors'

[Skybird]

Algerian helicopter assault leaves "dozens" of hostages dead, one dozen terrorists should have been killed, too. Current status unclear. Source: various German news.

[MH]

Seems all but 7 hostages killed?
Something went terribly wrong there.....

[BossMark]

Somebody's buggered up here big style

[Bilge_Rat]

These operations are always tricky and anyone can make a mistake, but the Algerian military simply does not have the expertise for this.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Bilge_Rat

These operations are always tricky and anyone can make a mistake, but the Algerian military simply does not have the expertise for this.

Soime Wetsern special units may have it. But whether politicians would have the guts to order them to become active, is something different. Today, we solve conflicts by negotiating and finally making some payment, to give the other side the chance to save its face, and to demonstrate that we understand the social complexity of a situation that roots in a precious foreign culture.

Too subtle for some of the scum haunting human life on this planet, it seems. Say about Islamic terrorists what yiu want: they often display a level of determination and unscrupulousness that we do not have. Reminds me of the wars in the medieval, in the unholy land. European armies better armed, Muslim armies death-defying.

I think this difference in mentality and motivation is most important. Soldiers volunteering for UN missions probably do not understand that when dreaming of helping to build schools and dig dwells and repair bridges. While their opponent is dreaming of little heaps of cut-off children arms because they showed sings of having gotten an injection by medical aid workers.

[Oberon]

It's certainly looking like there may have been a blood bath there, which, it be honest, is little surprise. As soon as the Algerian military began their attack, the hostages lives were over.
There's going to be a lot of finger pointing at the Algerian military, but to be honest in the fortunes of warfare any military of the world could have faced the same problems with a similar outcome, all it takes is for one guard to raise the alarm and a quick slice of a knife or the pull of a trigger and fission mailed.
Certainly the odds are better the more advanced a military you have, but there is still the risk of hostages getting killed since there are so many ways of ensuring that even if the hostage takers are killed the hostages don't escape alive, dead mans switches for example.

A sad outcome though, and my thoughts go out to the families of those affected by this.

[Stealhead]

Well even during 1980 SAS rescue at the Iranian Embassy which went over fairly well one hostage was killed during the assault.

Such situations are very hard to handle the only thing you can have at best is skill,speed and violence of action hopefully the assaulting force can manage to kill most of the hostiles before they can do much harm.It seems now though that any planned hostage taking will go like the Moscow theater and the school siege in Beslan a few years later.The terrorists having rigged the building and people in such a case what choice do you have? Of course the Algerian military has nothing near the experience that the Russian or Western elite forces have.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Oberon

A sad outcome though, and my thoughts go out to the families of those affected by this.

Yes....we take what little positives we can