Posted on 10/26/2014 7:40:28 AM PDT by Zhang Fei
A team of British special forces were dispatched to the Turkish- Syrian border to help brave Kurdish fighters battle against Islamic State (IS) gunmen.
The British troops called in several air strikes, killing dozens of IS fighters and halting their advance towards Kobane, just inside the Syrian border.
In one attack, SAS guided warplanes into an area where IS fi ghters were massing for an attack The US jets dropped several 500lb bombs into the area, killing and injuring dozens of fighters.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailystar.co.uk ...
Boots on the ground
The fly in the ointment is President Obola. I don't think he wants ISIS leadership destroyed.
Yeah, that’s all that was left after those 500 pounders. Just boots on the ground...
I know what you mean. It’s important to have some people from the home team on scene. And in this instance I think of the SAS as part of our home team, even if it technically isn’t so.
Boots on the ground and filthy ISIS terrorists bodies blown to pieces. Too bad we couldn’t have found some ISIS heads to show the Mozzies at home what happens when you join ISIS. Here’s hoping many more terrorists blown to smithereens.
I figured that was the case. However I thought it might havve been US troops and not the SAS.
Our men are extremely envious! Bet on it....and congrats SAS
What has this world come to.
Sources added that US Delta Force troops and the SAS were able to cut off flanking assaults by IS militants trying to encircle the town.
Glad these guys are there but their presence should not be acknowledged or advertised .
yeppers
The core of ISIS consists of vets from the campaign in Iraq. I suspect they have a considerable number of men scouring the terrain for SF scouts and spotters. My guess is that our SF guys are very, very close to the border, and they scoot across at the first sign of trouble. The Turkish tanks are there to make sure no hot pursuit operations occur.
In fact, the most straightforward way to capture Kobane under normal conditions (i.e. a non-militarized border with nothing but customs guards manning it) would be to conduct a pincer operation such that the tips of the pincers are in Turkey. The armored Turkish formations recently posted on the border have put the kibosh on that. Some of the West's loud complaints about Turkey may be just theater - a means of not giving ISIS an excuse to start blowing up large numbers of Turks in public places. Turkey's seeming impassiveness in the face of ISIS assaults on Kobane has gotten the Western public all riled up about Turkey, while Turkish diplomats acquiesce in the PR damage because the alternative might be thousands of dead Turkish civilians. It's similar to how Arab governments have criticized the campaign in Afghanistan, while secretly sending their SF personnel to help kill Taliban.
Near the end of the article it is mentioned that the Delta Force was present, which means that the US was definitely involved in the fight. Generally speaking, whenever there is some covert Western action - be it by the UK 'SAS' (more on why I put that in quotes later), German KSK, Polish GROM, whatever - you can be certain that there is a high likelihood of the US being involved, and usually either through Delta (or whatever it's current name is - from white sources it hasn't been Delta in decades, and not CAG or ACE in years) or the CIA's SAD/SOG.
Now, on the SAS put in quotes as 'SAS.'
The Special Air Service is one of the most complete special operations units in the world, and they have been the direct or indirect inspiration for many of the leading Western units (not all ...e.g. DEVGRU, or whatever what is commonly known as Seal Team Six is called nowadays, stems from the SBS and not the SAS). The problem is that any British Special Forces action is ascribed to the SAS, when the truth is that in many cases those missions have either been a mix of SAS and SBS, or even 100% pure SBS missions.
For example, the hunt for Bin Laden in Tora Bora. It has been described in media as a joint Delta/SAS mission, and there have been at least three books written on it calling it a SAS mission. The truth is that it was a 100% SBS mission, and it took Dalton Fury (the pseudonym of a Delta commander) to very specifically dedicate a couple of pages towards what he considered an injustice, and saying that it was a totally SBS mission and that they were consumate professionals.
Additionally, the 'SAS mission' to Sierra Leone to rescue UK forces that had been kidnapped by the West Side Boys? Yup, it was a joint SAS/SBS/Paratroopers mission ....but only the SAS and Paras made it to print (many of the SAS come from the Paras in the same way a lot of Delta comes from Rangers and Special Forces, and most DEVGRU come from the numbered SEAL teams).
What about the brave action of UK 'SAS' to bring down the violent prison outbreak in 2001 at a fort prison in Afghanistan that became the Battle of Qala-i-Jangi, and which led to the first American dying on the GWOT (not counting those who died on 9/11) and that led to the capture of John Walker Lindh (the American Taliban)? The battle that had around 500 armed prisoners against 9 US Special Forces and 6 'SAS?' Well, those SAS were 100% SBS.
Anyways, all this seems like a waste of bandwidth, but a lot of SBS are honestly annoyed by a lot of their work being ascribed to the SAS. Particularly considering the selection of the SAS and SBS is joint, but after passing SAS selection, to become SBS one continues with more selection ...and gets lower pay.
I'd not be surprised if it came out that the 'SAS' action here was SBS, especially considering the area of focus.
As an aside, the SBS/SAS rivarly from a mission attribution angle is similar to the DEVGRU/DELTA case. The main missions people hear about Delta are the failures, yet they are always active but one never hears what they do. After Operation Neptune Spear to bring down UBL, and the articles (and books and movies) that came out, there was some serious lashback from the specops community over what seemed like an eagerness to get media attention.
I just realized that it may be construed that I meant that the hunt for UBL in Tora Bora was a 100% SBS mission ....I meant it was a joint Delta/SBS mission, and the 100% was that the UK compontent was 100% SBS with no SAS. Thus, a purely Delta/SBS mission.
What is the SBS?
Special Boat Squadron - UK Royal Navy Special forces, majority drawn from Royal Marine Commandos -but not all.
On the US side it is the opposite, with Delta (an SAS analogue) missions largely being kept secret (although failures, like Eagle Claw, are well known even when it was not their fault), while Devgru (a SBS analogue) generally gets a lot of press ...particularly after Operation Neptune Spear.
Targets are identified by drones operated by SAS soldiers, who are then dropped into IS territory by helicopter to stage attacks.
The surprise ambushes are said to be “putting the fear of God into IS”. The raids are attacking IS’s main supply routes across western Iraq
cool. we call them quads
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