Posted on 03/03/2003 4:27:42 PM PST by knak
Several thousand allied special forces, including more than 300 SAS personnel, are already operating inside Iraq.
This suggests that, despite efforts to secure a United Nations resolution backing force, the war has begun.
Defence sources said last night that two SAS Sabre squadrons - about 240 men - plus more than 100 support troops were engaged in various parts of Iraq.
The scale of the operations in the south and west is unprecedented. British special forces did not enter Iraq during the 1991 Gulf war until the ground offensive began.
The men are part of joint special operations, which include more than 4,000 American and Australian special forces with headquarters in Qatar and bases in Jordan, Kuwait and Turkey. Their insertion into Iraq coincides with intensified air attacks.
Iraq said yesterday that American and British aircraft killed six civilians and wounded 15 others in raids on Basra but Washington said the jets had struck military targets after coming under anti-aircraft fire.
In the Commons, the Conservatives said that the action amounted to the "opening shots" in a new Gulf war.
Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, told MPs that there had been "no substantial change" in activity but that patrols in the no-fly zones now involved "a broader range of aircraft". RAF aircraft have played only a supporting role in the latest attacks.
Eight American B52 bombers arrived at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire yesterday, from where they could bomb targets in Iraq. Mr Hoon told the Commons that he had given permission for 14 B52s to be stationed there.
Last September RAF and US air force patrols of the no-fly zones were turned into a de facto air war when a raid by 106 aircraft on the H3 air base in western Iraq signalled the start of an intensification of attacks aimed at destroying air defences.
The Telegraph disclosed in January that a team of 35 SAS men was operating in and out of western Iraq as part of a 100-strong allied force looking for Scud missile launchers that could be used to attack Israel. The special forces are now moving in and out of Iraq virtually at will, monitoring Iraqi oilfields west of Baghdad and in the north amid concern that Saddam Hussein will set fire to them in the event of an invasion.
The priority of the SAS, which is being ferried back and forth by RAF Chinook helicopters normally based at Odiham, Hants, has been to ascertain Iraqi troop positions and confirm that targets selected from satellite photographs for the first attacks in any air war are not decoys.
The troops have also been looking for suitable holding areas in south-western Iraq for the many Iraqi troops who are expected to give themselves up in the early phases of fighting.
The allied plans involve a rapid advance across southern Iraq towards Baghdad from Kuwait and it is feared that this could be seriously delayed by the need to deal with large numbers of prisoners of war.
Other roles have included monitoring troop movements in the vast desert west of Baghdad and in the north around Saddam's home town of Tikrit, where senior commanders expect the Iraqis to put up stiff resistance.
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