Findings have revealed that the British Special Air Service and other European special forces have conducted covert operations in Nigeria and 18 additional countries within the last 12 years.
Recall that in 2012, a team of SBS commandos made an unsuccessful attempt to free a British citizen and an Italian who were being detained by an Islamist group in Nigeria.
In addition to these countries, the British SAS have carried out covert operations in Algeria, Estonia, France, Oman, Iraq, Kenya, Libya, Mali, Cyprus, Pakistan, Somalia, the Philippines, Russia, Syria, Ukraine, Yemen, and most recently Sudan.
UK Special Forces supported French military action against jihadi organisations in Mali in Mail by providing non-combat support. In response to the rising instability in the Sahel region, they also organised intelligence threat assessments and trained soldiers from Nigeria, Morocco, and Cameroon.
The special military troops are able to conduct their missions clandestinely since they are not publicly certified by UK politicians. Action on Gun Violence, a study group, has created a record of their activities dating back to 2011, based on media leaks, the AOAV noted in a paper published on May 23, 2023, headlined, Britain’s Special Forces on service in at least 19 nations since 2011.
According to the Guardian UK, this suggests that the prime minister and defence secretary routinely dispatch members of the SAS, Special Boat Service, and Special Reconnaissance Regiment on risky operations, even when Britain is not at war.
In 2012, there were rumours of special forces entering Syria to aid rebel factions fighting President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. They were allegedly dispatched in 2013 to locate military targets in preparation for a bombing campaign that was ultimately rejected by lawmakers.
When SAS member Matt Tonroe was killed in Syria in 2018, he was officially classified as a member of the Parachute Regiment due to the military’s obsession with secrecy. His death was initially attributed to an IED, but it was later determined that he had been murdered by a grenade thrown by one of his American colleagues.
Although Britain is not officially involved in the fighting, earlier this year, secret Pentagon documents identified 50 personnel of the UK special forces as being present in Ukraine. Numbers for the United States were 14, and France was 15. However, their ultimate motivation was not made clear.
The authors of the report assert that despite a lack of control, the extensive list of deployments took place. Even though special forces are exempt from parliamentary committee oversight and can be deployed without the Commons’ approval, etiquette dictates that MPs must vote to authorise a war.
It was recently asserted that David Cameron, the nation’s then-prime minister, had given the SAS “carte blanche” to capture or kill Middle Eastern Islamic leaders following a terrorist slaughter of 38 people, including 30 Britons, at a beach hotel in Tunisia in June 2015.
“The extensive deployment of Britain’s Special Forces in numerous countries over the past decade raises serious concerns about transparency and democratic oversight,” said Iain Overton, the executive director of AOAV. “The lack of parliamentary approval and retrospective reviews for these missions is deeply troubling.”
However, a public inquiry into allegations that the SAS carried out 54 summary executions in Afghanistan between 2010 and 2011—typically during night raids—began in March. After being charged with creating a firearm, men were kidnapped from their families and shot multiple times.
Special troops assisted in the evacuation of two dozen British diplomats and their families to an airfield north of the capital in April, when fighting first broke out in Sudan.
Current Defence Secretary and Tory MP Ben Wallace praised the military effort at the time. According to the Ministry of Defence, the mission comprised personnel from the Royal Marines, the RAF, and the Parachute Regiment, but no special forces.
Exfiltrations and hostage rescues are both commonplace for special forces. A couple arrested in the Philippines was successfully released in 2019 as part of a mission that UK special forces supported in planning and for which the country’s military was trained. In 2012, a detachment of SBS commandos sought and failed to rescue a British and an Italian taken hostage in Nigeria by an Islamist group.
SAS troops were last mentioned in the media in 2014, when a tabloid reported they were “on hand” to protect British athletes at the Sochi Winter Olympics.
