Kidnapped British aid worker saved by Nato troops in daring Afghanistan raid

Helen Johnston's parents 'hugely relieved' by rescue mission in remote caves of Badakhshan province

The parents of a British aid worker freed after a "breathtaking" Nato-led rescue mission in Afghanistan said on Saturday they were "hugely relieved by the wonderful news".

Helen Johnston, a 28-year-old nutritionist, had been held with three colleagues in the remote caves of the mountainous north-east Badakhshan province since 22 May after being seized by an armed gang while travelling by donkey to a relief project site. A fifth member of the team had managed to escape their captors.

At least seven people, said to be the hostage-takers, were killed in the night-time raid after Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) and Afghan forces reached the area using helicopters, an Isaf spokesman said.

David Cameron said he had spoken to Johnston by phone and described the operation to free her as well as Kenyan Moragwa Oirere, 26, and two unnamed Afghan civilians as an "extraordinarily brave, breathtaking" operation. He said he had given his permission for the operation to go ahead on Friday after concerns rose over the safety of the hostages.

"We are delighted and hugely relieved by the wonderful news that Helen and all her colleagues have been freed," he added. "The most important message is to terrorists around the world – they should know if they take British citizens as hostage we do not pay ransoms, we do not trade prisoners. They can expect a swift and brutal end."

Praising the operation, he said: "It was an extraordinarily brave, breathtaking operation that our troops had to carry out. I pay tribute to their skill and dedication."

Credit: Observer graphics

The captors were a mix of insurgent sympathisers and criminals, according to the governor of Badakhshan province. "One part had a connection with the Taliban, and some of them were drug smugglers … others of the group were criminals," Shah Waliullah Adeb said. "They kept them in seven different places in the mountain caves, where there are no local residents, to avoid the security forces finding their hiding place."

The kidnappers had told local elders who tried to negotiate a release that they wanted a $4m (£2.6m) ransom and the release of a notorious local criminal, he added.

Johnston's parents, Philip and Patricia, and her brother Peter said in a statement: "We are delighted and hugely relieved by the wonderful news that Helen and all her colleagues have been freed. We are deeply grateful to everyone involved in her rescue, to those who worked tirelessly on her behalf, and to family and friends for their love, prayers and support over the last 12 days.

"We greatly appreciate the restraint shown by the media since her abduction, and ask that they continue to respect our privacy at this special time."

The four hostages – all said to be in good health – work for Medair, a Swiss humanitarian non-governmental organisation. A spokesman, Aurélien Demaurex, said Medair was "immensely grateful to all parties involved in ensuring their swift and safe return".

The Isaf commander, General John Allen, thanked the Afghan interior ministry for "tremendous support throughout this crisis". He said the mission exemplified "our collective and unwavering commitment to defeat the Taliban".

He added: "I'm extremely grateful to the Afghan authorities and proud of the Isaf forces that planned, rehearsed and successfully conducted this operation."

The successful mission was in contrast to recent efforts. In March the engineer Christopher McManus and his Italian colleague Franco Lamolinara died at the hands of their kidnappers after a failed operation in Nigeria involving British forces. In October 2010 a rescue effort in Afghanistan ended in the death of the British aid worker Linda Norgrove.

In Badakhshan there have been pockets of insurgent activity and in August 2010 a group of eight medical aid workers, including the British doctor Karen Woo, 36, were killed with the Taliban claiming responsibility.

Johnston and Oirere were receiving support from British embassy staff in Kabul and the two Afghan aid workers had returned to their families in Badakhshan, the Foreign Office said.

"Staff from the FCO remain in close contact with Helen's family. We are also in touch with Moragwa's family and with the Afghan and Kenyan governments, and Medair have been in close contact with the families of the Afghan aid workers."

Johnston, who lived in Stoke Newington, north London, while studying nutrition at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, had been interviewed by London's Evening Standard about her work among "skeletal" children in Badakhshan, a deeply conservative province where women cannot go out alone. It has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world.

Four clinics run by Medair have treated more than 2,000 severely or acutely malnourished under-fives since Johnston started work there in April.

She told the paper: "The international emergency level is a 15% malnutrition rate, but here it is 30% for under-fives.

"Some things I have seen I have had a very emotional reaction to. The children come to the clinic draped in clothes, looking quite big, but then you roll up their sleeve to measure them and you see their tiny little frames."

She said it was worth putting up with gruelling conditions in a "cold, damp and miserable" place. "It can be frustrating and hard, but there is no doubt that there is a fundamental need for us to be here. Too many children are suffering for us not to be."

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