SAS nabs suspected Iraqi officials

[lrd]

SAS nabs suspected Iraqi officials
06:42 AEST Tue 15 Apr 2003

A busload of men intercepted by Australian Special Air Service Regiment (SASR) troops in the west of Iraq included suspected senior Baath Party officials, the commander of Australian forces said.

Brigadier Maurie McNarn said the bus was stopped by SASR troops en route out of Iraq on Friday.

He said the majority of the 60-plus on board appeared to be Syrians who had been whipped into a frenzy about attacking coalition forces but had thought better of the idea and were heading home.

"There was a small group of foreign nationals amongst them who were carrying in excess of US$500,000 cash plus other currencies and papers saying 'we will pay US$5,000 for every American you kill'. So these were not benign people out to spread good in the world," he told AAP.

"There are also some suspected senior Ba'ath people."

Brigadier McNarn said he did not believe any of those found on the bus were among the 55 most wanted former regime officials on a list recently released by the United States military.

He said all had been handed over to US forces for questioning and it was expected that most would be sent on their way.

He said the vehicle checks were now a major part of the SASR activities.

"There are also a number of sites and areas to be checked and that is still occurring as well," he said. "There are still small groups of the hard core of the regime."

"Anyone who comes into our sector, our area of operations, if there is any suggestion that they are armed members, para-militaries or foreign mercenaries or people of interest to us, we will apprehend them."

Brigadier McNarn said the SASR had effectively dominated their area of operations in western Iraq and the message apparently got through to the members of the Iraqi regime.

"We covered a large patch of ground and anywhere the Australians were, there became a marked reluctance to cut through the Australian sector," he said.

Brigadier McNarn said the SASR was mainly in Iraq for the phase of manoeuvre operations and that was now coming to an end. Already two warships are to head home and will be replaced by one while the RAAF F/A-18 Hornets have reached a stage where they no longer need to drop bombs.

"I don't expect to go home before the F/A-18s, the two warships and the SASR," he said.

"I have every expectation that I will hand over my command in the middle of next month or just after. I am satisfied that we have done what we came to do and we have done it well."

©AAP 2003
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/World/story_47671.asp?MSID=6d40353f6b864cd7806381801f7fd c0a

[millerjjr]

ROCK ON, AUSSIES;)

[mangda]

Special forces find underground weapons base
By Tom Allard, Herald Correspondent in Doha
April 19 2003





The Australian Defence Force says its special forces in Iraq have found more than 50 Soviet-made fighter jets, a chemical-proof bunker and a vast store of anti-aircraft guns and munitions at an Iraqi base west of Baghdad.

The Australian commander in Iraq, Brigadier Maurie McNarn, said troops had also found a French-made Roland anti-aircraft missile system, although it was too early to say when it was acquired and how.

He said secret dialogues with Iraqi air force commanders had played a large role in preventing those weapons being used against the coalition.

The coalition had bombed the base early in the war but the extent of the weapons cache was not revealed until SAS troops, commandos from the 4RAR battalion and specialists from the Incident Response Regiment searched the base last week.

The troops, 200 in all, came up against some armed resistance during the raid but soon secured control of the base.


"It was far more extensive than we first thought," Brigadier McNarn said.

The planes included 51 fully operational Soviet-made MiGs, including three advanced Foxbat MiG-25s.

Brigadier McNarn said the planes would have presented a serious threat to the coalition if they had been used.

However, the Iraqi air force never got off the ground during the conflict, giving the coalition freedom to bomb Iraqi troops and command bases.

"We established means of contacting some senior Iraqis and we also sent them some personal messages saying 'you really don't want to do this'," Brigadier McNarn said.

"We got some indications back through a number of the channels we set up ... that they didn't want to fight."

The commander said special forces had found an underground bunker that had been designed to withstand chemical and biological attacks and a training centre for handling weapons of mass destruction.

Brigadier McNarn said troops were continuing to explore the base for any weapons of mass destruction.

[Matau]

Nice one boys.....

Matau

[CASTLE37BRAVO]

Definitely what I want to do someday. SFBT in October....

[NewportBarGuy]

He said the majority of the 60-plus on board appeared to be Syrians who had been whipped into a frenzy about attacking coalition forces but had thought better of the idea and were heading home.

Now THAT is classic.

[mangda]

SAS reveal the war they fought
By Tom Allard, with the 1st SAS regiment in Iraq
April 25 2003



An Australian flag now flies over al-Asad air base. Once home of the Iraqi air force, its capture last week effectively marks the end of what were probably the most intense operations in the history of this SAS regiment. And also, the Australians say, a new beginning for Iraq.

The 57 Soviet-made MiGs, helicopters, anti-aircraft batteries, helicopters and 7.9 million kilograms of munitions and ordnance captured will form the basis of the "free Iraq air force" and it is a matter of considerable pride for men who never doubted the value of their mission.

According to the regiment's operational commander, who cannot be named or photographed and is surprisingly young, probably in his late 20s or early 30s, "we are very, very proud we have made Iraq a viable nation state".

Whether Iraq emerges from this war as a stronger state will depend very much on whether the United States-led reconstruction team can unite the country's fractious components but there is little doubt about the contribution of the 150-strong regiment to the swift military victory.

Within an hour of crossing into Iraq, the regiment was engaged in its first firefight. In the first 48 hours there were two more big battles but no sleep.


The SAS may specialise in reconnaissance and stealth but in this war they took on a new dimension. It was not simply a matter of calling in air strikes or other forces to deal with an identified enemy: the SAS took on that task themselves, initiating numerous conflicts.

Their targets were suspected sites for weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles from which troops of neighbouring states could be attacked. Using rocket-propelled grenades, machine-guns mounted on their long-range patrol vehicles or shoulder-mounted Javelin anti-tank missiles, they destroyed many in the opening days of the conflict.

Along the way they encountered Iraqi forces trained especially to counter US, British and Australian special forces teams. They used modified utilities carrying heavy weaponry and often they disguised themselves as civilians or Bedouin tribesmen.

One of the Iraqis' tactics was for a vehicle to surrender, encouraging the SAS to continue forward. Then their compatriots would hit the SAS patrol vehicles in an ambush.

They were, the commander says, "very experienced, very aggressive and very good at what they did".

"I have no doubt they thought we were a much larger force." The SAS were outnumbered, but surprise and stealth and superior weaponry enabled them to "poke out their eyes" and "crush their spirit and will" to force the enemy to "run or surrender".

SAS patrols have also intercepted a number of convoys with fleeing Iraqi regime leaders on their way out of Iraq, and caught Arab fighters answering Saddam Hussein's call for a jihad coming the other way.

In their final act of the campaign, the entire squadron - who usually operate in patrols of five of six members that are widely dispersed - came together with commandos from the 4RAR battalion to take the al-Asad airfield.

Australian F/A18 bombers helped with air support. "It was nice to listen to an Aussie voice on the other end of the radio," the commander says. "It was even better when they told us we had won the World Cup."

[CASTLE37BRAVO]

Thanks for posting that. I admire those men. They have my respect.

[CPTAUSRET]

Originally posted by mangda
SAS reveal the war they fought
By Tom Allard, with the 1st SAS regiment in Iraq
April 25 2003





" The SAS were outnumbered, but surprise and stealth and superior weaponry enabled them to "poke out their eyes" and "crush their spirit and will" to force the enemy to "run or surrender"




Kind of like "Grab them by the balls, and their hearts and minds will follow":

Terry

[mangda]

SAS partly lifts veil on a different approach to war
May 12 2003




One officer has agreed to be quoted on the record, writes Herald Correspondent Paul Daley.


Just over five weeks ago, Nick Withycombe of Australia's Special Air Service was huddled in a black converted C-130 aircraft with a unit of American special forces troops as it screamed towards Baghdad Airport.

About 250 Iraqi rounds were fired at the plane on its way in. Many struck home. But Major Withycombe survived to become one of the first Australian soldiers into Baghdad after the invasion.

"We arrived right on midnight and we were still unsure what was down there. There was a shedload of firing from both ways - there was lots of chaos and lots of confusion and we met some pretty fierce resistance for quite a while, before and after we landed - before we secured the perimeter," he said.

"While the resistance was initially fierce, I had anticipated that there would be a lot more . . . they were well organised and we found no injured or dead."

It is unheard of for an Australian SAS soldier to speak on the record about a recent operation. But Major Withycombe - who was operating on the perimeters of Iraq for about seven weeks before the war officially began - agreed to do so because he is moving out of the regiment and believes that his public identification will not jeopardise the SAS's traditional anonymity.


Later this month, Major Withycombe will move back to Baghdad as the Australian headquarters liaison officer to the US taskforce running Iraq.

He, and other SAS troops, spoke to the Herald last Friday in Doha, Qatar - the base for Australian operations in Iraq - where the Prime Minister, John Howard, stopped on his way home from the United States and Britain.

Major Withycombe said that, after securing the airport, he and his US colleagues were the first allied troops to move into Baghdad's suburbs, where it was extremely tense and dangerous.

How did he cope?

"Dare I say it - I'm pretty comfortable in that environment. Our special forces are the best in the world and our level of physical and psychological training is very high so we can cope with that sort of thing . . . easily, really. The Americans know that too and they love working with us for that reason. From our point of view, it is excellent to work with the Americans because . . . we get a reach into their intelligence and equipment, which is first rate."

Nonetheless, the approaches of the Australian and US special forces differ greatly, he said.

"The US special forces are very big and good at operating in chaos - and that's largely because creating chaos is one of their tactics. We often look for another way than always going in straight away with a lot of punch."

Another Australian special forces member, who declined to be named, said: "We look for different ways of doing things - you could say we are more lateral.

"We don't always see the way through as killing the opponent straight away, whereas the Americans almost certainly do - in this war we used a lot of psy ops [psychological operations] very successfully. I believe we managed to convince many [Iraqi soldiers] to go back to their families, to think again, not to fight . . . I'm not sure the Americans would claim to have done that."