OPERATION BARRAS

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Stories of Special Forces Operators podcast. Listen to
some of the bravest and toughest people on the planet
share their stories. Sit back and enjoy.

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(01:06):
looking at Operation Barras BABRS. It's a operation that happened
in Sierra Leone, So let's find out what's going on
in freetown. Sierra Leoned, Britain's elite Special Forces SAS and
Parachute Regiment executed a high stakes rescue operation in Sierra
Leone twenty five years ago. They freed eleven British soldiers

(01:29):
held hostage by the notorious West Side Boys militia. The
dubbed Operation Barris, the mission unfolded and the dense jungles
along the Roquale Creek fifty miles east of Freetown, marking
a decisive blow to the rebel group and underscoring the
United Kingdom's resolve in West Africa's crumbling stability. The crisis
began in August twenty fifth, when a patrol from the

(01:50):
Royal Irish Regiment, part of a UN backed training mission,
was ambushed near the villages of Gabaribana and Macmeni. The
West Side Boys, a splinter faction known for their brutal
and erratic behavior, seized the soldiers, demanding the release of
their imprisoned leader, Faux de Calais, and other concessions. Negotiations
faltered as the rebels, often intoxicated by drugs and alcohol,

(02:12):
paraded their captives captives, escalating tensions in a nation still
reeling from a decade long civil war. Britain's response, however,
was swift and surgical. At dawn on September tenth, two
Chinook helicopters carrying approximately one hundred and fifty SAS and
paratroopers descended on the twin villages. The operation was meticulously coordinated.

(02:34):
While says commandos stormed to barry Bona to extract the hostages,
Paris hit mag Benny the paratroopers to neutralize rebel reinforcements,
supported by the Lynx helicopters, firing on enemy positions he
had sought. Lasted about twenty minutes. That was it, but
was fiercely contested. The rebels, armed with AK forty sevens
and RPGs, mounted a disorganized resistance, only to be overwhelmed

(02:54):
by the British forces precision and power. All eleven hostages
were maasingly rescued, though five have been moved prior to
the raid and were freed in a secondary action. The
cost was sleep, though one SAS trooper, Private brand Tenian
was killed and several others wounded. Estimates suggest twenty five
rebels die, with dozens more captured, including Calais, whose arrest

(03:15):
may cripple the group's leadership. The operation's success hinged on
weeks of intelligence from MI six, their international kind of
equivalent to the CIA in the US and reconnaissance by
the Special Boat Service for Sierra Leone. Operation Barus is
a double edged sword. The west side Boyd's a thorn
in the government's sites and splintering from the Armed reugh
Forces Revolutionary Council have been weakened, potentially easing pressure of

(03:36):
Free Town's fragile coalition. Yet the raid exposes the limits
of the UN mission and the Sierra Leone Army, both
reliant on foreign intervention to maintaining order. Britain's three hundred
strong troop presence at the time, ostensibly for training, now
appears as linchpinn in the country's security, so Operation Barras
stands as a stark reminder folks the stability there remains

(03:59):
a foreign import, just with blood and audacity sometimes, but
a great operation that saved those hostages. Incredible job by
the SAS