British SAS Unit And Diplomat Captured By Libyan Rebels
Sky News reports:
Up to eight members of an SAS unit and a British diplomat have been detained in Libya, it has been reported.
According to the Sunday Times, the elite soldiers are believed to have been escorting the junior diplomat through a rebel-held area in the east of Libya when they were taken hostage.
It is understood that all have now been transported to the rebel-stronghold of Benghazi.
The SAS's intervention has allegedly angered Libyan opposition figures who ordered the armed and plain-clothes soldiers to be locked up on a military base.
Opponents of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's fear he could use any evidence of western military interference to rally patriotic support for his regime.
Sky News defence correspondent Niall Paterson said: "Neither the Foreign Office nor Ministry of Defence are as yet saying anything about this matter.
"But people I have spoken to give me no reason to doubt the report."
"The Sunday Times said they were there to establish diplomatic relations with the opposition movement."
Paterson added that the issue of rebel groups encouraging foreign involvement is an extremely sensitive issue in Libya.
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