Post date: Mar 10, 2012 1:2:14 PM
ROME, ITALY (MARCH 10, 2012) (REUTERS) - A diplomatic row continued on Saturday (March 10) as the Italian government sought details on a raid carried out by British special forces in Nigeria to liberate a British and Italian hostage.
Italians back their government's call for clarification at a political and diplomatic level over the events surrounding the death of an Italian and a British hostage in Nigeria after British special forces attempted a rescue mission without consulting Italian authorities.
In a statement from Mario Monti's office on Friday, the Italian prime minister said the operation had been carried out without prior knowledge of the Italian government.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said he had authorised Britain's involvement in the rescue attempt after being told the men's lives were in "imminent and growing danger".
Cameron said the two hostages were killed by their Islamist captors during the joint British-Nigerian raid in northwestern Nigeria on Thursday (March 8).
Italian President Giorgio Napolitano on Friday (March 9) condemned Britain's failure to inform Italy before launching a botched raid in which an Italian and British hostage were killed in Nigeria, calling it "inexplicable" and demanding an explanation.
Briton Chris McManus and Italian Franco Lamolinara were working for a construction company when they were seized in May from their accommodation in Kebbi state, near Nigeria's northwestern borders with Niger and Benin.
Italian newspaper headlines on Saturday ran with the news of the failed rescue mission.
"Errors and secrets on a failed blitz," read Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. La Stampa's headline read "Rome-London clash on blitz".
Some Italians see Britain's failure to inform the Italian government about the rescue mssion as demonstrating their country's declining international status.
"Italy counts less and less, Italy in general," said Rome resident Pietro.
"On the Italian level, on the political level it's very serious that Italy did not know anything," said Rome resident Maria.
Rome businessman Emilio Petrucci said "We need to discover what happened, it we had done this to the English, who knows how this would have ended, what would have happened."
The captors belong to a faction of militant Islamist sect Boko Haram that had made links with al Qaeda's north African wing, a senior official at Nigeria's State Security Service said.