English 'revenge' has not been long in coming and for the terrorists, accustomed to fighting against well-equipped but poorly trained militias, they will be pains. The British government gave carte blanche to its 'killers' to kill or capture the leaders of the Islamic State terrorist group.
The British force will be composed of one hundred SAS Hunter Killers. In Iraq, the 'Task Force Black' formed by SEAL and SAS is already active under US command, but this new 'assassination force' will act exclusively with American SIX units.
British revenge was announced by Prime Minister David Cameron, after the Sousse massacre in which thirty British tourists lost their lives.
According to the Sunday Times, the SAS and SBS units will act with MI6 and GCHQ, the interception service of the British government. Assault missions will be planned and coordinated by the command of Northwood, north-west London. Each assassination mission must be approved by the prime minister.
Until yesterday, SAS has continued to propose deep missions to the British government to disrupt the ISIS network. Operations, however, have almost always been banned due to the risks involved.
The Tunis attack has changed everything. Now the British want targets to eliminate. Several SAS teams have been active in Iraq for months. The main aim is to spread panic among the terrorists, acting exclusively at night from a secret base in the desert.
Since the beginning of hostilities against ISIS, London has deployed a total of two thousand men belonging to all branches of the British armed forces. Fortified what is probably considered the most powerful ally base in Iraq. Its position is unknown but it is known in the environments with the name of "Area-51". It hosts the Command of the Black Task Force as well as the 'Sixties' unit. The base houses exclusively elements of the British and American special departments.
Iraqi Area-51 starts all hunter killer, targeting leader and man hunting missions. The British government will also support the SAS with a contingent of Gurkhas and with an independent aerial assault force formed by heavy helicopters and flying gunboats.
The terrorists know perfectly well that against Western special forces, they have no hope. In all the clashes known to date between the al-Baghdadi militia and the western commandos, the outcome has always been the same.
London, therefore, is following the example of the French in Mali. Paris in January 2013 kicked off Operation Barkhane against al-Qaeda militants in the region, creating a powerful front-line fighting force made up of three thousand men with a single purpose: to eliminate the jihadists raging from eastern Chad to the Mauritania. Same tactic adopted by the British who have been working for months to instill fear in the enemy.
Nocturnal operations, an average of twelve targets eliminated by 'beat' and withdrawn.
Franco Iacch
(photo: MoD UK)
