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| East/Subsaharan Africa |
| Nigerian strikers threaten to kill British workers |
| 2003-05-01 |
| Edited for brevity. Nigerian oilmen, staging a wildcat strike on four offshore rigs in the Niger Delta, have threatened to kill their British co-workers by blowing up one of the installations. The strikers have warned they are prepared to kill everyone on board the unidentified platform, which is owned by Transocean, the world’s biggest offshore drilling company, in retaliation against its decision to send bailiffs and armed guards out to the rigs with court orders to break the strike. A total of 35 British oil workers, the majority of whom are Scots who formerly worked in the North Sea, are among the 97 foreign nationals held prisoner on board the rigs for the past two weeks in an increasingly volatile dispute. Looks like the situation is escalating. |
| Posted by:Dar |
| #5 Would be a textbook operation for the SBS. A significant part of their raison d'etre for the last three decades has been to respond to terrorist stunts involving North Sea oilrigs. |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2003-05-01 14:25:11 |
| #4 Play bagpipe dirges at them for a few days. If they don't hand over the hostages, break out the accordians. |
| Posted by: tbn 2003-05-01 14:09:12 |
| #3 Remember this is an offshore oil rig surrounded by water. Ergo, it's mission with Special Boat Service written all over it. They'll even never see them coming. |
| Posted by: Steve 2003-05-01 12:21:46 |
| #2 Majority of Brit hostages are Scots eh? The two lead battalions in the Brit assault into Umm Qasr and Basrah were the "Blackwatch" and "Royal Scots Dragoon Guards" - both Scottish units that have a long and storied history. I wonder if they might want to do some sightseeing in Nigeria on the way home, now that they are packing up in Basrah... We can loan them Lt General William Wallace (US V Corps Commander for the current war) to make it a Braveheart theme. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2003-05-01 11:47:37 |
| #1 Let's see. Coming off of their recent practice with the Iraq "walk in the sun," suppose the British Commandos would be up to a raid "a la Entebbe" with this one? |
| Posted by: Larry 2003-05-01 11:07:40 |