The Daily Mail reported on Saturday that UK’s Special Air Service (SAS), the country’s special forces, has been waging a “secret war” against ISIS fighters in northern Iraq for the past few months.
The campaign started with a ground offensive in April by British troops and UK-trained Kurdish soldiers. Throughout the following months, the SAS continued the offensive against ISIS in the mountainous region with support from the British Royal Air Force (RAF) and the US-led coalition.
Defense sources told the Mail that there had been at least 10 battles in Iraq over the past few months, with other secret operations in neighboring Syria. “Around 100 militants have been eliminated. There was a major battle every few days in May followed by some big clashes in June too,” one source said.
The SAS tracked ISIS fighters to a network of caves and tunnels in northern Iraq, where the RAF was called in to provide air support. The Mail details some of these attacks, which were mostly carried out by RAF Reaper drones and Typhoon planes.
Fighting ISIS is the supposed reason the US, UK, and other coalition forces are still stationed in Iraq, a mission that started in 2014, dubbed Operation Inherent Resolve. While the US still carries out airstrikes against ISIS, it has used Iraq as a battlefield to fight Iran and Shia militias. Following the US assassination of Top Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad, Iraq’s parliament voted to expel US troops from the country.
Well, if the Daily Mail reported it, it must be true.
There is “good” ISIS who we are funding to get Assad. They went after “bad” ISIS who even we have deemed ineffective to our cause.