| Spoiler: the events occurred in 2005. This story is about the report recently issued. |
The SAS launched a daring mission to rescue two of its own men held hostage in Iraq against the orders of the Ministry of Defence, the Daily Mail can reveal.
The elite unit was pushed to the brink of mutiny after it was banned from saving the SAS soldiers captured by militants because to do so would embarrass the Government. The astonishing edict drove SAS officers close to mass resignation, according to a hardhitting report by the Tory MP Adam Holloway, a former Guards officer.
The SAS Lieutenant-Colonel on the ground, believing that 'politically motivated' commanders in the UK were 'unable to make rational and effective decisions', sent in a rescue team anyway -- fearful that within hours the captured men could have been spirited away or executed. The rescuers blasted their way into the police station in Basra where the two soldiers were being held and saved them. |