UK prepares commando unit to free Ethiopia hostages

Mar 5 2007 AFP report (via ST) excerpt;

Britain reportedly prepared a commando unit to rescue five of its nationals kidnapped in northern Ethiopia, as Addis Ababa on Monday refused to back claims that Eritrean soldiers carried out the abduction.

The Britons, all linked to Britain’s embassy in Addis Ababa, were kidnapped last Thursday in the remote Afar desert region near the Eritrean border, according to the Ethiopian state news agency.

London has already sent a crisis team to Ethiopia in an effort to obtain the release of the five, along with their Ethiopian drivers and interpreters.

Some 60 SAS troops have already been dispatched to neighbouring Djibouti, the British Daily Mirror reported Monday, while the Times talked of a "substantial" team and the Guardian said special forces were already in Ethiopia itself.