ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the background to the seizure of the Royal Irish patrol by the WSB. It examines the hostage negotiation and the planning that was put into the deliberate assault. The WSB therefore had links to the government but as Koroma had decided to base himself in Freetown he was replaced as leader of the WSB by the self-style Brigadier-General Kallay. Koroma had decided to back Kabbah in May and the WSB had been one of the militias that had initially supported the government against the RUF. The resultant impact on the RUF, UNAMSIL and the Sierra Leone government would have been considerable. On Friday 25 August 11 members of the Royal Irish Regiment and an accompanying Sierra Leone Army liaison officer were sent out on a routine patrol to visit the Jordanian UNAMSIL battalion based some 60 miles east of Freetown.
