Kidnapped British aid worker saved by Nato troops in daring Afghanistan raid

guardian.co.uk, Saturday 2 June 2012 21.24 BST

British citizen and nutritionist Helen Johnston, 28, who had been taken hostage in the remote Afghan province of Badakhshan, was freed together with a Kenyan citizen and two Afghan civilians.

Seven of the captors were killed in the raid.

 Johnston, who is working for Medair, a Swiss humanitarian organization, was taken hostage on the 22^nd of May, when she was visiting a project site together with four other team member;s one member managed to escape. Prime Minister Cameron, who gave the permission for the raid, said he decided to approve of the operation because the situation was getting worse for the hostages. Cameron stressed that Britain was not prepared to pay ransoms or to set free prisoners in order to negotiate with terrorists. He stated: “The consequences for the terrorists will be harsh”.

The captors are believed to be a group of Taliban fighters and a group of criminals (drug smugglers). The hostages were held in mountain caves,  away from villages so they would not be easily detected. The captors demanded a £ 2.6 million ransom as well as the release of a local criminal.

Johnston’s parents were overjoyed to hear of their daughter’s release. They expressed their gratitute to those involved in the rescue mission and the media for respecting their privacy during the whole ordeal.

Evaluation

Kidnapping for ransom and for release of terrorists is still an issue in a lot of countries around the world. Innocent people who are mostly working for humantarian organizations, are ambushed and kidnapped and huge demands are made to have them released. I think it is good to make a stand to terrorists that using humans as cannon balls can not be tolerated and should be dealt with strongly. In this case, I applaud David Cameron for taking swift action and cooperating with the Afghan army to free the hostages.