SAS naming Afgahn war dead

2 Pages·2021·0.05 MB·English

SAS fights move to name its
Afghanistan heroes
By David Graves
(Filed: 28/01/2002)

A DISPUTE has developed between the Government
and the SAS over the award of gallantry medals to
soldiers who fought in Afghanistan, and whether the
recipients should be publicly identified.

Senior members of the Government, including Geoff
Hoon, the Defence Secretary, are said to want the
names of the decorated SAS men to be made public,
along with detailed citations.

However, the SAS, which attempts to maintain a
blanket of secrecy over its activities, says any publicity
will compromise the identity of its members.

Sources close to the regiment said it would be
"hypocritical" to insist on the decorations being
published as the MoD had been involved in expensive
legal actions to try to prevent the publication of
memoirs by former members of the regiment.

Government advisers are said to have argued that the
public would "feel good" about Britain's military
involvement in Afghanistan if they knew what the SAS
had achieved.

Traditionally, members of the SAS who receive military
honours are identified in Army lists by their name,
their original regiment and where the decoration was
won. Citations are rarely published, except in the case
of a posthumous award, to avoid giving details of SAS
activities.

The problem for the SAS is that, because it was the
only British regiment to fight in Afghanistan, any
military award for gallantry in the country would be
automatically linked to it.

Ironically, some SAS officers have been lobbying for
two of their men, both NCOs, to be awarded the
Victoria Cross for their heroism during a battle against
al-Qa'eda fighters at a training camp near Kandahar
last month.

The regiment has only received one VC since it was
formed by Sir David Stirling during World War Two - a
posthumous award to Maj Anders Lassen for a raid on
German positions at Lake Comacchio, Italy, in April
1945.

So far, no decision has been made about what
decorations should be awarded to the SAS for its
involvement in Afghanistan, although senior MoD
officials said it was "unlikely" that any VCs would be

given.

Although the MoD has not publicised the SAS role in
Afghanistan, the regiment was involved in two major
battles.

During the attack on the al-Qa'eda training camp,
which involved about 100 men, one of the NCOs
nominated for a VC drove on his men and was
involved in close-quarters gun battles. The other
nominated NCO was involved in intense hand-to-hand
combat using knives.

Despite the SAS being outnumbered at Kandahar by
almost two to one, they killed 27 al-Qa'eda and
Taliban fighters, wounded about 30 and captured
another 30. One of the NCOs, who has already been
decorated for service in Ulster, Bosnia and the Gulf,
was wounded in the calf and later flown back to
Britain.

During the second major action of the campaign, in
the Tora Bora complex of the White Mountains in the
second week of December, scores of al-Qa'eda fighters
were killed in desperate fighting.

Senior defence sources said there was no question of
the Army being forced to bow to any demands that
SAS soldiers should be named.

"If you are talking about putting people forward for
VCs, there is bound to be a lot pressure to give details
in the citations but we would say only as much as we
can. Quite apart from anything else, there are still
quite a few of the guys still out there.

"We do not identify members of the special forces or
give away their operational techniques. We are not
going to compromise that, no matter what No 10 or
anyone else might say."