South African hired guns in Gaddafi rescue

An international operation to rescue Muammar Gaddafi from his besieged last refuge involved mercenaries from the notorious "Wonga Coup" led by former British SAS officer Simon Mann, the Independent has learned.

Crause Steyl, a pilot and one-time business partner of Sir Mark Thatcher, had taken part, with the former Prime Minister's son, in the failed attempt to overthrow the dictator of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea.

He was asked, just after Gaddafi's death, to fly stranded mercenaries out of a mission "which had gone badly wrong". He refused.

The private force of South Africans is said to have undertaken the task of getting Gaddafi out of Libya via a convoy in the belief it had the backing of the Western powers. The men were recruited, it is claimed, by a woman of British background living in Kenya and working on behalf of a company in London.

However, the extraction of the Libyan dictator ended in ferocious violence and confusion when the convoy carrying him out of Sirte, his birthplace, drove into an ambush with sustained air strikes from French jets and ground attacks from rebel fighters.

The venture came to a bloody end, with Gaddafi tortured and killed, and some of the South Africans with him reported killed, injured and captured.

This has led to recriminations and accusations of betrayal. At least some of those taking part believe that the hidden aim of those who hired them was not to save Gaddafi but to deliver him into the hands of his enemies.

Details of the South African involvement and the link of some of the former soldiers and policemen to the failed Equatorial Guinea plot seven years ago were revealed by Mann after he had spoken to Steyl.

Another group of mercenaries from the same contingent, meanwhile, is said to be "protecting" Saif al-Islam, Gaddafi's son, who is reported to have fled to a region bordering Algeria, Niger and Mali. Saif al-Islam is said to be negotiating with the International Criminal Court to hand himself in to face war crimes charges. There are also reports that his armed escort may be trying to move him outside the court's jurisdiction to Zimbabwe.

Steyl's part in the Equatorial Guinea coup involved arranging a lease for a Boeing 707, which was eventually intercepted in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, in the process of transporting arms for the overthrow of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.

Steyl stressed that he refused the mission to airlift 50 fighters out of Libya. Former Scots Guard officer Mann, who has served prison sentences in Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea for his role in the attempted coup, said: "We are concerned about what may have happened to those who had been injured, who may have been arrested ... I don't want to see them suffer. I hasten to add, of course, that I was not involved in any way in this Libyan operation."

Danie Odendaal, one of the fighters, claimed he was with Gaddafi when the convoy was attacked. He has told South African media three groups of South Africans were flown into Libya via Dubai and Cairo to help the Gaddafi family under a deal with Nato.

The plan, he said, was initially to take Gaddafi to Niger. "We all believed they [certain Western countries] wanted him out of Libya. But then Nato attacked ... I think we were sold out."

The dictator suffered brutal abuse before being killed. "The poor thing screamed like a pig," Odendaal said. However, some rebels then helped the South Africans get away.

The Independent has learned that Odendaal, who was travelling on a Greek passport, was sent to Cairo to receive medical treatment and has since moved to Western Europe. However not all the mercenaries have been freed and Odendaal has named two South Africans who were killed. Rebel fighters present at the time of Gaddafi's capture spoke of seeing bodies of white mercenaries which later disappeared.

- Independent