{"id":5311,"date":"2011-03-20T18:37:30","date_gmt":"2011-03-20T18:37:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theredphoenixapl.org\/?p=5311"},"modified":"2011-03-20T18:37:30","modified_gmt":"2011-03-20T18:37:30","slug":"report-hundreds-of-british-sas-soldiers-were-operating-in-libya-for-weeks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/2011\/03\/report-hundreds-of-british-sas-soldiers-were-operating-in-libya-for-weeks\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Hundreds of British SAS Soldiers Were Operating in Libya for Weeks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

The Sunday Mirror reported<\/a> that British operatives had been active in Libya for weeks before the current air war:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Hundreds of British SAS soldiers have been operating with rebel groups inside Libya for three weeks, the Sunday Mirror<\/em> can reveal today.<\/span><\/p>\n

Two special forces units, nicknamed \u201cSmash\u201d teams for their destructive ability, are hunting Colonel Gaddafi\u2019s long-range surface-to-air missile systems, which could launch attacks on jets or commercial airliners.<\/span><\/p>\n

The crack troops have been racing against time to pinpoint the Libyan Army\u2019s most potent strategic weapon, the Russian-made SAM 5 missile systems. Despite their age, the systems have a range of more than 200 miles and the capability to hit targets across the Mediterranean.<\/span><\/p>\n

The two SAS units, joined by signallers, engineers and medics, are simultaneously establishing positions on the ground in case any Western jets are downed during an air attack.<\/span><\/p>\n

[….]<\/span>\"\"<\/span><\/a> GMA News expands on this story further<\/a>, saying they were seized by rebel forces:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

LONDON \u2014 Libyan rebels have captured a British special forces unit in the east of the country after a secret diplomatic mission to make contact with opposition leaders backfired, Britain’s Sunday Times reported. <\/span>
\nThe team, understood to number up to eight SAS soldiers, was intercepted as they escorted a junior diplomat through rebel-held territory, the newspaper said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Foreign Office said in a brief statement it could neither \u201cconfirm nor deny” the report.<\/span><\/p>\n

Earlier on Saturday the Geneva-based Human Rights Solidarity group, which employs a number of Libyan exiles, told Reuters by telephone that rebels had seized a team of \u201ceight special forces personnel”. Both the Ministry of Defense and Foreign Office repeatedly declined to comment on the group’s report.<\/span><\/p>\n

The SAS intervention apparently angered Libyan opposition figures, who ordered the soldiers locked up on a military base, according to the Sunday Times.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Sunday Mirror reported that British operatives had been active in Libya for weeks before the current air war: Hundreds of British SAS soldiers have..<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[97,119],"tags":[331,197,226,242],"class_list":["post-5311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-news","category-war","tag-france","tag-imperialism","tag-imperialist-war","tag-libya"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenix.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/libya-bombing-2011.jpg?fit=504%2C450&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}