Bomb busters
BRITISH Special Forces have dealt a heavy blow to Taliban terrorists responsible for the cowardly roadside bombing campaign against our troops in Afghanistan.
Royal Marines from the Special Boat Service – motto By Strength and Guile – have destroyed 500 of the home-made devices and killed 21 insurgents in an attack on a Taliban bomb factory in an old hill fort.
Among the cache of weapons seized were more than 100 bombs already packed into plastic bags and buckets and primed for use against British soldiers in Helmand province.
The operation, carried out late last month, is being hailed as one of the most brilliantly executed combat offensives in the long war on terror. It has drawn praise from Nato commander General Stanley McChrystal, a former US special forces soldier, who has sent a personal message to the SBS congratulating them on their success.
The SBS has played a vital covert role in the war against Al Qaeda since the early days of the conflict in Afghanistan.
Alongside the more famous Special Air Service, it is believed to have led most of the dangerous operations in the heart of Taliban bandit country, including the plan to snare Osama Bin Laden in the Tora Bora cave complex.
SBS fighting skills are honed for coastal or ocean operations but their training in hand-to-hand combat and high-altitude parachuting has made them equally effective in the arid countryside of Helmand.
Dusty hill forts, some built by the British more than a century ago, still decorate the landscape and it was from one crumbling ruin that Taliban commanders have been directing terror strikes in recent months.
The remote fort, protected by natural rock formations and thought to be long deserted, was pinpointed as a Taliban stronghold from intelligence gleaned from prisoners.
Initially, SBS commanders felt they could be walking into a trap. But a 150-strong team made up of the SBS and British paratroopers from the Special Forces Support Group, along with elite Afghan troops, stormed the fort with deadly effect.
Landing in RAF Chinook helicopters, the combined force used the cover of the Helmand river to advance on their target before using diversionary tactics to confuse the Taliban defenders. By the time the vanguard of 60 SBS men had stormed the ramparts and seized the fort, 21 enemy lay dead. Apache helicopter gunships and RAF Harriers also played a part in the fighting.
A senior SBS source said the destruction of the arsenal was a major blow to the enemy, which would slow them down for weeks, if not months, and will mean the Taliban having to increase efforts to bring in more supplies from Pakistan.
He said: “Be under no illusion, this was a major find, the biggest across Afghanistan, but while we gave the bad guys a bloody nose and messed up their supply chain it will be only a matter of time before they get more resources.
“If we had more operators on the ground we would stand a better chance of crippling their operation, but someone needs to make a decision that we are here to win. At the moment we are doing what we can but we are a very small force.”
Taliban leaders know only too well the effectiveness of British covert troops, who have been conducting so-called “trigger operations” deep in their heartlands wearing native dress and speaking local dialects.
The success in eradicating Taliban commanders has made them the insurgents’ most feared enemy, with one captured fighter telling interrogators: “The only soldiers we fear are the men who look like Afghans and come in the night looking for our special people.”
