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SAS target Taliban using Royal Navy submarine technology The SAS is targetting Taliban insurgents and Afghan smugglers in the Helmand desert using Royal Navy technology designed to hunt down Soviet submarines, it can be disclosed. The Daily Telegraph has been allowed access to operations along supply routes that involve radar technology traditionally used to spot periscopes breaking the surface and missiles skimming across wave tops. Using a sack-like device with which helicopters carry the radar equipment, the Sea King airborne surveillance and control (Skasac) can spot camel trains, pickup trucks and insurgents on foot dozens of miles away. The Navy...

'A secret World War II diary of the British special forces unit, the SAS, has been kept hidden since it was created in 1946. Now it's being published for the first time to mark the 70th anniversary of the regiment. The BBC has exclusive access to the remarkable piece of history. It was 1946; World War II was over and so was the Special Air Service, better known as the SAS. Set up in 1941 by David Stirling, a lieutenant in the Scots Guards at the time, it had changed the way wars were fought, dispensing with standard military tactics...

Ex-SAS soldier John McAleese, who led the raid that ended the 1980 siege at Iran's embassy in London, has died. Mr McAleese, who was in his early 60s, died on Friday in Thessaloniki, Greece, the Foreign Office said. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14697819

British special forces are on the ground in Libya helping to spearhead the hunt for Col Muammar Gaddafi, The Daily Telegraph can disclose. As a £1 million bounty was placed on Gaddafi’s head, soldiers from 22 SAS Regiment began guiding rebel soldiers after being ordered in by David Cameron. For the first time, defence sources have confirmed that the SAS has been in Libya for several weeks, and played a key role in co-ordinating the fall of Tripoli. With the majority of the capital now in rebel hands, the SAS soldiers, who have been dressed in Arab civilian clothing and...

As Wisconsin heads toward lifting a ban on carrying concealed weapons, researchers at the University of California-Davis have turned up some unsettling information about those who may take advantage of the law. In a study using 15-year-old data -- the most recent available -- published online in the journal Injury Prevention, the UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program says those who carried concealed weapons or who had confronted someone with a gun were twice as likely to be heavy drinkers than non-gun owners. Gun owners who drove with loaded weapons were four times more likely to hop behind the wheel...

British Special Forces have intercepted a convoy of Iranian weapons destined for Taleban insurgents in southern Afghanistan. Commanders fear the rockets - smuggled across the border on three pick-up trucks - represent a stark escalation in Tehran's support for the insurgents, at a time when record levels of United States and Nato forces are struggling to reverse a rising tide of Taleban violence. General David Petraeus, the commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, briefed Afghanistan's president Hamid Karzai on details of the haul yesterday, which included 48 122mm rockets and about 1,000 rounds of Kalashnikov ammunition. One truck...

Libya: SAS mission that began and ended in error A SAS mission to Libya resulted in humiliation after the troops were first captured by rebels, then a diplomat’s plea for their release was broadcast on state television. By James Kirkup, Nick Meo in Benghazi and Caroline Gammell 9:01PM GMT 06 Mar 2011 The mission was error-strewn from the beginning, when a helicopter carrying the team of seven SAS soldiers and MI6 officer landed in Benghazi without warning the rebel commanders - causing the insurgents to think they were coming under attack. The team then aggravated the situation by claiming to...

Libyan rebels have captured a British special forces unit in the east of the country after a secret diplomatic mission to make contact with opposition leaders backfired, Britain's Sunday Times reported. The team, understood to number up to eight SAS soldiers, were intercepted as they escorted a junior diplomat through rebel-held territory, the newspaper said. The Foreign Office said in a brief statement it could neither "confirm or deny" the report. Earlier on Saturday the Geneva-based Human Rights Solidarity group, which employs a number of Libyan exiles, told Reuters by telephone that a team of "eight special forces personnel" had...

SAS unit, diplomat 'held' by Libya rebels LONDON (AFP) – A Special Air Service (SAS) unit and a junior diplomat were being held by rebels in eastern Libya following a bungled mission to put the envoy in touch with them, The Sunday Times said. The broadsheet, citing sources, said the SAS unit, thought to be up to eight men, were captured along with the diplomat they were escorting through the rebel-held east. "We can neither confirm nor deny the report," a Foreign Office spokeswoman told AFP. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said: "We neither confirm nor deny the story and...

Up to eight British soldiers are being held by rebel forces in Libya after a secret mission to put British diplomats in touch with opponents of Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi, according to the London Times.

Fancy your chances against the SAS, Gaddafi? Elite troops and MI6 spies poised to help Libyan rebels By Tim Shipman Last updated at 3:30 AM on 5th March 2011 •600 Black Watch soldiers on 24-hour standby to fly in •50 people killed and 300 wounded in clashes at Zawiyah Britain is to send teams of spies and diplomats into Libya to help oust Colonel Gaddafi, it emerged last night. MI6 operatives backed by the SAS are to land in the east around the key rebel stronghold of Benghazi 'within days'. In addition, 600 soldiers of the Black Watch are on...

SAS troops last night staged a dramatic evacuation of 150 civilian workers from the Libyan desert. The Special Forces soldiers landed in two C130 Hercules military transport aircraft on a landing strip near remote oilfields south of the eastern port of Benghazi. The SAS men – known as ‘blades’ because of their role at the sharp end of the mission – had flown from Malta’s Valletta airport, where, in meticulous detail, they planned the rescue of the stranded workers, many of them British.

Two RAF Hercules aircraft were involved in the operation, which involved the SAS and forces from Special Boat Service. Both planes have landed in Malta, the Ministry of Defence confirmed, while HMS Cumberland is on her way back to Benghazi to evacuate anyone else left in the chaos-stricken country. Britain has also evacuated its diplomatic staff and suspended the operations of the British embassy in Tripoli. Workers departed on the last Government-chartered flight, which took off for Gatwick carrying 53 British nationals on Saturday afternoon. Liam Fox, the defence secretary, said: "I can confirm that two RAF C130 Hercules aircraft...

Estimated 150 Britons still trapped in remote areas as armed forces on standby in Malta plan to extricate them SAS troops, with a unit of paras in support, are poised to help an estimated 150 British oil company workers stranded in isolated parts of the Libyan desert.They were believed to be on standby in Malta ready to extricate the British nationals as the frigate HMS Cumberland prepared to arrive at the Mediterranean island with 200 Britons on board. The frigate HMS York was ordered to head east for the Libyan coast, though the captain had not yet been instructed with...

Friends of the colonel, who cannot be named for security reasons, said he had grown increasingly despondent with service life following the cuts imposed on the military by the Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR). It is understood that two highly respected Brigadiers, one of whom also served with the Special Forces, are considering their positions. Senior officers have warned that many more high calibre officers are expected to resign in the coming months especially if the Continuity of Education Allowance--which pays for a proportion of boarding school fees for service families--is cut.

EXCLUSIVE Stig was SAS Hero  RACING driver Ben Collins, unmasked yesterday as Top Gear mystery man The Stig, is a former member of the SAS. Ben trained SAS heroes in daring "escape and evade" driving skills while serving with the regiment, The Sun can reveal.     No more mystery nice guy ... Ben Collins aka The Stig   Millions of viewers have seen the race ace coaching celebrities on how to achieve the fastest time around a TV circuit in Top Gear's reasonably-priced car. But sources close to the special forces unit - motto Who Dares Wins - last night...

Quarter of senior Taliban killed by SAS in 'kill or capture' targeting The Taliban in Helmand are being killed by the SAS on an "industrial scale" with a quarter of senior commanders killed since spring, leading to a dramatic drop in British casualties. By Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent, and Ben Farmer in Kabul Published: 6:00AM BST 01 Sep 2010 More than 65 senior insurgent commanders or bomb-makers have been "removed from the battlefield" by SAS troopers, leading to significant disruption of the insurgency. While senior British officers are cautious at overplaying the success The latest casualty figures for August show...

With the troops all ready to hit the ground running word suddenly came down the line from the UK government in London – no rescue must be attempted as it would give the lie to Whitehall’s claims that Basra was under control. The men had to be sacrificed to save the face of the politicians. The reaction was swift and stark – the SAS ignored London and rescued their colleagues with clinical precision.

Britain has dispatched a special counter-terrorist unit to Yemen as the mountainous Arab state emerges as the new frontline in the war against al-Qaeda. The force is training Yemeni military and will assist in planning operations against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the group which claimed responsibility for the Christmas Day attack on a US airliner. The disclosure comes as Western security analysts warn that the failed underwear bomb plot will serve as a test run for future overseas attacks by an increasingly sophisticated outfit still honing its terror techniques. "The bomber was inexperienced, dispensable and an unknown quantity," said...

I can't find an online news story on this or I would post it. Back in January, Australia awarded its first Victoria Cross - Australia and the Commonwealth of Nation's as a whole, highest award for valour in the face of the enemy - to Trooper Mark Donaldson of the Special Air Service. He was decorated by Her Excellency Quentin Bryce AC, Governor General of Australia, appointed by the Queen on the advice of Australia's Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, and the first woman to hold the role as Australia's de facto Head of State as the Queen's representative. She...