The West Side Boys aren't a traditional army of any sort. You have to understand they have this weird, free culture of their own going on. It's like a sick Peter Pan society where warlords give the fighters a sense of belonging and in return, the West End Boys talk big and terrorize innocent people. They're really not Insurgents; they're far worse. They're professional thugs, and what they're doing in Sierra Leone is outright exploitation because it's not even about politics or religion. They run around calling themselves 'Brigadier Generals' and what not, but it's nothing more than a gang with a leadership that's motivated by sheer power.

So these UN military troops come in with anti-insurgency groups and some of them get captured by the West Side Boys. In response, Britain sends in Special Operations troops and paratroopers. This is the paratroopers' specialty: they mobilize and get where they need to go immediately, drop out of the air and do combat. The helicopters usually don't even touch ground before these guys fast rope out of the rear cargo hatch. As a paratrooper, you'll wear leather gloves and slide down the ropes quickly, and then you'll get out of way because another guy is right on top of you. It's a quick succession of paratroopers doing this, one after another after another.

Meanwhile, the SAS snipers are in the swamps already. SAS are trained to live in places for weeks. Now remember, they were conducting covert operations from the swamp-scoping out the enemy and watching patterns, taking note of where the troops can be dropped without being seen or heard for a week, but they had to hike down to the swamps before settling in. They've had a long journey, but this is what they do. They live where no one knows, observing for days on end to coordinate everything before the operation goes down. It takes a special kind of soldier to be able to live in a wet, disease-ridden environment, able to travel with the bare minimum to survive and moving through strenuous, dense jungle and always being wet.

When the SAS and paratroopers get to where the hostages are, they stun them. Rescue teams and SWAT use flash bang grenades. It shocks and blinds people, especially, like in this mission, when you catch them in dim light. When you experience a flash bang, you’re instantly deaf and blind. It won't affect the guys throwing them because they know to cover eyes and ears beforehand. So they use the flash bang to afford them a few seconds to get their guys out.

Luckily, they find the soldiers alive. And it makes sense if you think about it, even for such a ruthless band like the West Side Boys. The troops are like the ultimate trophies; they're getting these guys a lot of attention as symbols of power. If they kill them, the story will end. And they're enjoying this too much to let that happen.