Posted on 05/29/2009 5:29:58 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
The British Army’s SAS Regiment, which played a vital role in defeating al-Qaeda in Iraq, is now arriving in Afghanistan in one of the biggest deployments of UK special forces since the Second World War.
Two squadrons from 22 SAS are being sent to Afghanistan now that Britain’s combat role in Iraq has been wound up, to carry out clandestine operations against the Taleban.
The deployment of the SAS, which will be joining the Special Boat Service (SBS) already serving in southern Afghanistan, represents a mini-surge of troops to add to the 700 regular British soldiers going out for a four-month period to provide extra security during the presidential election.
The switchover of the SAS from Iraq to Afghanistan has coincided with the replacement of General David McKiernan, the overall American commander of Nato’s International Security Assistance Force, by Lieutenant-General Stanley McChrystal, former commander of US Special Operations, who is expected to launch missions to starve the Taleban of fighters, funds and arms.
The impact of the SAS in Baghdad in eliminating the threat from alQaeda and persuading Sunni insurgents to swap sides and become informants helped to bring the war to an end. In a recent interview with The Times, General Sir Richard Dannatt, the head of the Army, said that the coalition special forces, including the British units, had taken on al-Qaeda “and their mass-suicide tactics . . . full square” and had defeated them in Baghdad. “Al-Qaeda didn’t defeat itself in Baghdad. It was defeated, substantially defeated,” he said.
Working closely with a specially trained unit of 12 Iraqi commandos, the SAS in Baghdad and Anbar province crippled at least two car bomb networks, killed or captured hundreds of key targets and took part in multiple rescue missions to save hostages such as Norman Kember, the British
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
If an SAS operator came up saying he needed some stuff, I would give him whatever I could spare. We are, after all, on the same side last time I looked.
The 10th Mountain is doing truly nasty things to the Rag- headed thugs trying to hide in the mountain. Add to our guys on the high ground the SAS doing what they do and I would not want to be a rag-headed thug!
You shouldn’t have any problems with the SAS.
You dont mess
with the S.A.S.
yitbos
Australians have SAS as well.
The Aussie equivalent of the British SAS is the Australian SAS (New Zealand has it’s own SAS in Afganistan too).
The AUS/UK/NZ SAS work very closely together (exchange postings, joint patrols, etc...)
All three work and train very closely with the US Special Forces.
I have maintained from the beginning that the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan were best pursued by Special Ops. Targeted removal of key opposition figures.
IMO, the non-application of this has prolonged the wars and raised the cost of action.
Did the Sec Def just put a Special Forces general in charge of Afghanistan? Maybe that's why the Brits are sending their SAS?
yitbos
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