Tri-Service

British Special Forces In Combat With Daesh

Conventional forces aren’t allowed to fight in Syria, but special forces are by default – that’s what Conservative MP Crispin Blunt, chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, has said on Radio 4 this morning.

He questioned the effectiveness of parliamentary approval of military operations if special forces operate in a legal black hole.

The Times has reported that British Special Forces have gone beyond their initial remit to train and provide logistical support and are now involved in defending a rebel unit under attack by Daesh.

This is the first evidence of direct involvement by special forces in the Syrian conflict.

“I’m not at all surprised,” Blunt said. “This kind of operation has been briefed out… by his Majesty King Abdullah of Jordan… this appears to be a small set of (rebel) operatives who deserted from Assad’s forces a while ago and got trained up by the Americans and ourselves.”

Blunt also described the situation involving special forces as being part of an Alice in Wonderland world where parliament disallowed involvement by ground forces in the Middle East, but then British ground forces have ended up there anyway.

The result is that newspapers (like The Times) find out about this, but the Defence Secretary can’t comment and British society can’t have a proper conversation about where this all fits in a wider strategy.

Sara Elizabeth Williams, the reporter for The Times, also said on Radio 4 that she noticed something odd in Jordan when there was no press access to a big refugee site near the Syrian border.

The site is about 2 km away from a Jordanian military base with a facility acting as an American add-on.

When Williams managed to get a local rebel military commander on the line, she said she heard people speaking English in the background.

“Do you have support from British Special Forces?” she asked.

“Absolutely” the commander replied.

When she pressed him on how he knew they were British, he said that they introduced themselves as British and that the British had helped to train his rebel force, so he knew them.

David Cameron sought parliamentary approval to support U.S. led military action against the Assad regime in 2013.

When he didn’t get it, President Obama was forced into a U-turn for lack of allied support.

But covert military action against ISIS has continued, with British and American special forces advising and giving logistical support to Syrian rebel groups that are fighting the militants.

The Americans created the New Syrian Forces (NSF) in 2014, though the project based in southern Syria was downgraded last year when the first wave of trainees was kidnapped and the second defected.

Five members of the NSF were left in the whole of Syria, a situation much derided by some in the media, such as American comedian Bill Maher.

But support for non-IS, non-Assad affiliated groups has continued in the north (the NSA – New Syrian Army – appeared on the battlefield there in November of 2015).

This latest report now indicates direct involvement by British Special Forces in support of some of the remnants of the NSF in the south.