Elite SAS soldiers carried out a secret revenge mission against members of a gang who killed six British military policemen in Iraq, it has emerged. For 23 years, it was believed the killers had fled across the border into Iran. However, a new book has revealed SAS soldiers tracked down two of the Iranian-backed gang members involved and killed them.
Senior officers halted further attacks
In the book, titled ‘Blades’, SAS sources said senior military officers stopped the special forces unit from carrying out further attacks against the gang. It is believed top brass were concerned that challenging the Iranian-backed group could spark an uprising against British forces in southern Iraq.
An SAS officer recalled the mission in ‘Blades’, saying: “We couldn’t believe how disinterested UK commanders were in finding those responsible. We just got on with it and got lucky.” They said top brass were concerned about “stirring up opposition” towards British troops.
Family reaction to the covert mission
John Miller, father of 21-year-old Corporal Simon Miller who was one of the military policemen killed by the gang in June 2003, said the SAS had “meted out justice”. Speaking to the Mail on Sunday, he said he was surprised to hear about the covert mission that has “been kept from us for 23 years”.
Mr Miller added: “I am very pleased to hear two of them are dead. I hope the SAS soldiers emptied their magazines into them, as they did to our Si. But it is another sickening blow for the families that the SAS were stopped from hunting down the others. They got away with it. The SAS catching these guys was our best chance of justice.”
Details of the 2003 incident
The other Royal Military Police (RMP) members killed in the incident were Sergeant Simon Hamilton-Jewell, 41, Corporal Russell Aston, 30, Corporal Paul Long, 24, Lance Corporal Ben Hyde, 23, and Lance Corporal Tom Keys, 20. The personnel died in an Iraqi police station in Majar al-Kabir, Maysan province, after an angry demonstration.
Iraqi police officers shared the killers’ names days later when SAS officers — pretending to be grieving colleagues — visited the station, according to the Mail on Sunday. The officer said all of the gang members were a threat to UK forces, adding the SAS “would have got them all given the chance”.
The Ministry of Defence has a long-standing policy of not commenting on SAS operations, but said its “heartfelt sympathies” were with the families of the killed military policemen. ‘Blades’ by Mark Nicol is being released on Thursday.
