Nigerian house where British and Italian hostages were executed

Covered in blood and riddled with bullet holes, this is the squalid lair where British hostage Chris McManus and his Italian colleague were executed by a Nigerian terror gang.

The 28-year-old engineer and Franco Lamolinara, 47, were shot dead by their Al Qaeda-inspired kidnappers as UK Special Forces closed in on the house on Thursday.

Images show the scars of a firefight which pepper the house in in Mabera, a suburb of Sokoto in North West Nigeria. Inside, the filthy conditions become shockingly apparent, including a bathroom showered in blood and faeces.

Blood covers a bathroom inside the house in the suburb of Sokoto, north-west Nigeria

Emergence of the horrific conditions in which they were forced to live comes as Britain becomes even more embroiled in a bitter and escalating international row over the botched mission to rescue the pair.

Italy yesterday demanded ‘utmost clarity’ from Downing Street – with the country’s president Giorgio Napolitano describing as ‘inexplicable’ the failure to inform Rome in advance of the rescue attempt.

 

McManus and Lamolinara died during a raid by British special forces and Nigerian troops on the terrorist hideout where they were being held.

It emerged yesterday that in the 24 hours before the raid the surveillance operation on the compound had been ‘compromised’ when either British or Nigerian operatives were seen in the area.

Bullet holes pepper the walls of the house where Briton Chris McManus and Italian Franco Lamolinara were killed by their captors yesterday

The kidnappers were so well prepared that they were said to have opened fire before Special Boat Service forces even attacked the building, and an armoured vehicle had to be used to batter down the door.

Number Ten said talks had been taking place on the hostage crisis with the Italian government for the past nine months – suggesting a possible rescue operation had been discussed.

But officials admitted that no contact had been made with Rome before David Cameron gave the go-ahead for the mission amid fears that the kidnappers had become aware the net was closing on them and were on the point of killing or moving their captives.

Italian officials were informed only after the operation had started, and by the time Mr Cameron spoke to the Italian PM Mario Monti, the hostages had been executed by their captors.

Italian politicians expressed outrage – and one of the country’s leading newspapers, Corriere della Sera, claimed Britain had been motivated by ‘nostalgia for its imperial glory’ when it decided to act unilaterally.

There were further questions over the circumstances of the raid on a compound on the outskirts of Sokoto, northern Nigeria, where the hostages were being held by the Al Qaeda-linked Islamic group Boko Haram. Its demand was for the release of several of its senior figures who are under arrest. 

Unusually for an operation of its kind, it was launched in daylight and there are claims that the key element of surprise was lost.

In addition, neighbours were said to have been warned by Nigerian troops to leave their homes in advance of the operation.

A firefight went on for an hour before the building was secured, by which time the two hostages had been shot in the head at point blank range.