Hostages killed: Update and some thoughts

BBC report on the hostage rescue here. They have been named as Chris McManus and Italian Franco Lamolinara from the construction company B Stablini. Media now reporting David Cameron said that the rescue operation was "Nigerian-led" and the British forces advised.

When they were taken there were a number of possibilities:

1. They were kidnapped by Boko Haram

2. They were kidnapped by a gang of opportunists

3. They were kidnapped by opportunists who sold them to Boko Haram.

4. They were kidnapped by opportunists who sold them on to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

The fourth of these options to me seemed the most likely, along the same lines as the kidnap in 2009 of some tourists in Gao, Mali, which ended in the murder of Edwin Dwyer. There was a rash of other kidnaps in Mali, thought to be connected to AQIM in 2011.