page_title: Operation Barras
section_title: Assault
hierarchical_section_title: Operation Barras / The operation / Assault
caption_attribution_description: English: RED SEA (Sept. 25, 2008) Marines from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (26th MEU) practice fast-rope techniques from a CH-46E Super Stallion from Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron (HMM) 264 aboard the multi-purpose amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7). Iwo Jima is deployed as part of the Iwo Jima Expeditionary Strike Group supporting maritime security operations in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Jennifer Hunt/Released)
context_page_description: Operation Barras was a British Army operation that took place in Sierra Leone on 10 September 2000, during the late stages of that nation's civil war. The operation aimed to release five British soldiers of the Royal Irish Regiment and their Sierra Leone Army liaison officer, who were being held by a militia group known as the "West Side Boys". The soldiers were part of a patrol that was returning from a visit to Jordanian peacekeepers attached to the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone at Masiaka on 25 August 2000 when they turned off the main road and down a track towards the village of Magbeni. There the patrol of twelve men was overwhelmed by a large number of heavily armed rebels, taken prisoner, and transported to Gberi Bana on the opposite side of Rokel Creek.
  The British Army negotiated the release of six men, but were unable to gain the freedom of their Sierra Leone Army liaison officer and the other men before the West Side Boys' demands became increasingly unrealistic. Negotiators concluded that these were delaying tactics rather than an effort to resolve the crisis; by 9 September, the soldiers had been held for over a fortnight.
context_section_description: The task force left Hastings—approximately 15 minutes' flying time from the West Side Boys' camp—at approximately 06:15. Downstream from the villages—approximately 15 minutes' flying time, just out of the West Side Boys' visual and hearing range, the helicopters went into a holding pattern to allow the SAS observation teams time to get into position to prevent the West Side Boys from attacking any of the captives before the extraction teams were on the ground. Once the observation teams were in position, the helicopters proceeded up the line of Rokel Creek, the Chinooks flying low enough that the downdraft tore off the corrugated iron roofs of several huts in the villages, including the roof of the building in which the Royal Irish were being held. As the helicopters approached, the SAS observation team at Gberi Bana engaged West Side Boys in the vicinity of the captives to prevent any gang members from attempting to kill them before the area was secured. Upon their arrival, the two Lynx attack helicopters strafed the villages to make the landing zones as safe as possible for the Chinooks and destroy the heavy weapons that had been identified by the SAS observation teams.
caption: US Marines fast-roping from a Sea Knight—the same insertion technique used by the SAS at Gberi Bana
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