As negotiations continued last night to secure the release of 11 British soldiers kidnapped in Sierra Leone, including 10 from Ireland, members of the SAS were understood to be on hand to mount a rescue operation.
The soldiers are members of the first battalion of the Royal Irish Regiment. According to a senior officer in the regiment eight of the hostages come from the North, two from the Republic and one from Liverpool. Five of the 11 are married.
The Ministry of Defence in London maintained that 10 of the men were from the North, with one from England. However, a military source said that soldiers from the Republic might be listed as coming from the North for security reasons.
The officer in charge of the British deployment in Sierra Leone stressed that negotiations were continuing to secure the release of the troops, who were returning from a liaison visit to a Jordanian battalion when they were captured by a militia group known as the "West Side Boys".
"I can confirm that we are talking to representatives of the West Side group. I can also confirm that we have had contact with the liaison team. I want to assure people that they are unharmed, they have been given food, water, shelter, and they are generally being well treated," Brig Gordon Hughes said. "These talks are at an early stage, and they are ongoing."
Specialist military and police negotiators have been sent to Sierra Leone, and members of the SAS are believed to be on hand in the event of a rescue being mounted.
The battalion is a remnant of the Irish Rangers regiment which merged with the predominantly Protestant Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR). In contrast with the other battalions of the RIR, which serve primarily in the North and incorporate the UDR, the first battalion includes a substantial number of Northern Catholics and men from the Republic in its ranks.
Maj John Douglas, the second-in-command at the battalion's barracks in Canterbury, Kent, said the families of the hostages were being looked after by their relations and army personnel and were being updated regularly.
Maj Douglas said: "Obviously everyone here is very concerned and is leaning on every snippet of news we get. All our thoughts are with the men and their families."
The soldiers were part of a 250-strong detachment from the British army which is training government troops in Sierra Leone. Their captors are members of the former discredited Sierra Leonean army, loyal to the military junta that ruled the country in 1997-98.
The militia formed part of a fragile pro-government alliance fighting Sierra Leone's feared Revolutionary United Front rebels, but they fell out with the authorities after attacking other pro-government fighters and carrying out a series of car-hijackings, robberies and rapes.
The West Side Boys are said to be demanding food, medicine and the freedom of one of their leaders known as "Bomb Blast" in return for the hostages' release.
The kidnapping has rekindled the debate on British military involvement in the Sierra Leone conflict. A spokesman for the Conservative opposition accused the government of "mission creep", allowing the British presence in Sierra Leone to move beyond its original mandate.
In New York the UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, condemned hostage-taking in Sierra Leone and said he expected the men to be released soon.