Doc7505
Diamond Member
- Feb 16, 2016
- 15,665
- 27,581
- 2,430
SAS troops launched dramatic operation to save 20 comrades trapped by advancing Taliban hordes as Kandahar fell - landing a Hercules plane on the desert floor in pitch darkness in 'textbook' raid
SAS in dramatic desert raid to save troops from Taliban
Around 20 elite SAS troops were left stranded in Kandahar province hundreds of miles from friendly forces when the militants took over.
A team of Special Air Service soldiers who were surrounded by Taliban hordes in Kandahar have been rescued in a dramatic desert operation.
Around 20 elite SAS troops were left stranded in the province hundreds of miles from friendly forces when the militants took over.
As enemy fighters closed in they sent an SOS request to Special Forces bosses back in Britain calling for immediate extraction.
Meanwhile, RAF chiefs planning the evacuation of British nationals and entitled Afghans from Kabul airport, had to find a transport aircraft capable of landing and taking off again in the desert.
On Wednesday night online flight trackers picked up a UK Hercules transport aircraft flying over the Gulf, until it turned off its Identification Friend or Foe sensors. This ensured flight radars could not follow its route towards the area of desert scrub which SAS troops had identified as a possible landing strip.
The aircraft, from the RAF's Special Forces wing, made a dramatic landing in the dead of night with the crew wearing digital night-vision goggles.
A source said: 'It was a very hush, hush mission. Kandahar had fallen to the Taliban on Friday and the guys were down there for five days after that. The enemy were rampant and killing a lot of Afghan Special Forces whom the SAS had been working with. So it was a very urgent mission.
'Credit to the Hercules crew from 47 Squadron for landing the aircraft at night on rough terrain and getting her airborne again with the guys and their equipment aboard. It was textbook.'
The aircraft reappeared on Thursday morning on flight trackers as it approached an international military base in Dubai.
Frustratingly for SAS chiefs the C-130J which rescued their troops is due to be retired as part of the latest reorganisation of the RAF.
The Hercules is the RAF's major tactical transport aircraft and in its current versions, has been the backbone of UK operational mobility since it was brought into service in 1999. Praised as 'highly flexible' by the RAF, it has the ability to airdrop a variety of both stores and paratroopers, while landing and taking off from natural surfaces, such as a desert strip.
Over recent days, the President has remained stubbornly opposed to any plan to extend the rescue operation into September.
His stance means UK nationals and Afghans eligible to relocate to Britain would have to escape themselves to a third country, such as Pakistan, from where they could travel to the UK on commercial aircraft.
Such journeys would be fraught with danger. Scores of interpreters are hiding in Kabul following beatings and shootings by the Taliban; punishment for their service to a foreign power.
Comment:
Leave it to the Brits to carry out great rescue missions.
