Electronic Telegraph
ISSUE 1416
Sunday 11
April 1999
80 SAS men in Kosovo to target
death squads
By Alastair Mcqueen
Special Air
Service - Secret
Kingdom
Invincible sails in as UK doubles war
effort
A SQUADRON of SAS soldiers has been sent
deep into Kosovo after moves to deploy US
special forces were put on hold until
Congress
approves the committal of US ground forces.
Eighty SAS men were ordered into action after
an appeal by Nato commanders to Tony Blair.
The Prime Minister is being advised by the
new
Director of Special Forces, an expert in
Balkans
undercover operations.
The SAS role is to target for the RAF the
Serb
Special Police and army units responsible for
the eviction and massacre of thousands of
ethnic
Albanians. They have also been ordered to
find
and mark massacre sites, to locate the
hideouts
of the death squad leaders and to find the
secret
arsenals where the Serbs have hidden many of
their heavy weapons.
The SAS is also on hand to rescue Kosovars
who are trapped or awaiting execution. A
Parachute Regiment battalion has been put on
standby to move to the Balkans if required.
The
paras are the only infantry unit trained in
large-scale hostage rescue.
Ministers have overturned their original
decision
that no ground troops - including Special
Forces
- were to set foot in Kosovo until agreement
for
an international force had been thrashed out.
They also feared that if SAS soldiers were
captured they would be paraded in show trials
or tortured and executed.
However, Nato commanders were anxious to
make their airstrikes more precise. An SAS
member said: "Technology is brilliant, but
all
the technology in the world cannot replace
the
Mark One Eyeball. Having men on the ground
reporting back accurately and guiding
aircraft
and other troops to locations is the ideal.
We
can check out targets before the RAF even
lift off
the ground or we can change them at the last
moment if the guys on the ground spot
something more important."
The soldiers are understood to be wearing
their
normal camouflaged lightweight windproof
suits
for moving across country, but once they find
lying-up points or observation posts they
will
change into fleeces to avoid exposure and
hypothermia.
As allied aircraft approach they move closer
to
the target, pointing laser beams at the
location
and quietly talking the pilots into position.
They
will carry the latest US weapons including an
Armalite rifle with a grenade launcher,
MiniMi
machine-guns, long-range "super rifles" plus
mortars, claymore mines and pistols.
