It’s payback time.
And like the famous “Devil’s Brigade” of Second World War fame, they know full well they may not survive the coming battles.
According to British media reports, 40 of the bravest men in the world — elite Special Air Service elite troop — have asked to stay in the wartorn country to avenge the deaths of their fallen comrades.
The 13 US Marines killed in a suicide bomb at Kabul airport in Afghanistan.
One source told the Sunday Mirror: “The Marines who died were from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Force.
“That unit has given assistance to the SAS and SBS many times over the years in Afghanistan.
“They have helped resupply them with food and ammunition and treated their wounded.
“There is a strong bond between the two units, especially with the SBS who recruit largely from the Royal Marines.”
The dramatic move came as the last UK civilian evacuation flight left the airport on Saturday – with 150 British passport holders still stranded in the city.
Sources have claimed that the Who Dares Wins regiment will want to establish a base near to the Afghan-Pakistan border area to conduct undercover strikes against terrorist group IS-K, The Sun reported.
Due to the control the Taliban hold over Afghanistan, defense sources say the SAS group will need its approval to operate in the country.
The now-famous Devil’s Brigade was a special allied military unit of Canadian and American “bad-ass” commandos who terrorized Nazi forces in Europe.
That same “kill or be killed” attitude and their unmatched specialized commando training will no doubt infuse the SAS volunteers on future top secret missions inside Afghanistan.
IS-K won’t know what hit them — and no place, will be safe.
The ultra-violent Islamic State Khorasan Province jihadists based in eastern Afghanistan is believed to be behind the bomb attack which killed 170 people on Thursday.
IS-K claimed responsibility for the attack, naming Abdul Rehman Al-Loghri as one of the airport suicide bombers and have reportedly released his photo.
The terrorist group said one of its suicide bombers had targeted “translators and collaborators with the American army.”
Through a tweet by their spokesperson, the Taliban condemned the attack, saying “evil circles will be strictly stopped.”
The SAS squad’s base will be used by the Royal Navy’s SBS special forces, the US Army’s Delta Force and the US Navy Seals – the unit which killed al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden in 2011.
All of the troops will be supported by drones as well as US and possibly British strike planes, with defense sources claiming that the Taliban will give them approval to operate in Afghanistan.
British and US special forces will be organized in a similar manner as the “Task Force Black” which operated during the Iraq war.
Eventually renamed to TF-88, Task Force Black’s primary role was to hunt down senior members of Al-Qaeda operating in Iraq.
Credit: US Marine Corps.
To this end, the Task Force had several successes including the killing of Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian jihadist who ran a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan.
In a shock move, senior commanders have also refused to rule out the possibility of the task force working alongside the Taliban to take on IS-K.
Islamic State named Abdul Rehman Al-Loghri as one of the airport bombers which killed 13 US servicemen, around 170 Afghans, including two UK nationals.
President Joe Biden pledged that the US would “hunt down” the terrorist who killed the servicemen, telling the world in a televised address “we will not forget.”
“This strike was not the last. We will continue to hunt down any person involved in that heinous attack and make them pay.
“Whenever anyone seeks to harm the United States or attack our troops, we will respond.”
US troops carried out a drone strike on an IS-K “planner” and another member of the jihadist group in the US military’s first act of revenge for the airport attack.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the weapon used was the infamous R9X Hellfire missile, known as the “flying Ginsu,” because of its vicious blades which slice apart the victim, without the use of explosives.
The R9X also limits the amount of collateral damage, and can even be directed against targets sitting in the driver’s seat, or passenger seat of a target vehicle.
According to The Conversation, IS-K was officially founded in January 2015.
Within a short period of time, it managed to consolidate territorial control in several rural districts in north and northeast Afghanistan, and launched a lethal campaign across Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Within its first three years, IS-K launched attacks against minority groups, public areas and institutions, and government targets in major cities across Afghanistan and Pakistan.
By 2018, it had become one of the top four deadliest terrorist organizations in the world, according to the Institute for Economics and Peace’s Global Terrorism Index.
One of the group’s greatest strengths is its ability to leverage the local expertise of these fighters and commanders.
IS-K used its position on the border to garner supplies and recruits from Pakistan’s tribal areas, as well as the expertise of other local groups with which it forged operational alliances.
Substantial evidence shows that the group has received money, advice, and training from the Islamic State group’s core organizational body in Iraq and Syria. Some experts have placed those figures in excess of US$100 million.
IS-K’s general strategy is to establish a beachhead for the Islamic State movement to expand its so-called caliphate to Central and South Asia.
It aims to cement itself as the foremost jihadist organization in the region, in part by seizing the legacy of jihadist groups that came before it. This is evident in the group’s messaging, which appeals to veteran jihadist fighters as well as younger populations in urban areas.
IS-K’s goal is to create chaos and uncertainty in a bid to push disillusioned fighters from other groups into their ranks, and to cast doubt on any ruling government’s ability to provide security for the population.
In addition to its attacks against Afghan minorities and civilian institutions, the group has targeted international aid workers, land-mine removal efforts and even tried to assassinate the top US envoy to Kabul in January 2021.
Meanwhile, sources claimed that MI6 are holding secret talks with the Taliban, and that British spooks wanted to tell them the war is over as far as the UK is concerned provided they do not give any terrorist sanctuary, The Sun reported.
Taliban leaders were also told that the UK would be willing to reopen the embassy in Kabul and provide assistance to the new government providing there are no more human rights abuses.
The last UK civilian evacuation flight left the airport on Saturday but 150 British passport holders were still stranded in the city.
It ended the biggest military evacuation in 80 years, and signalled the end of two decades of military involvement in war-torn Afghanistan.
More than 15,000 people including 5,000 British nationals have been airlifted to safety in less than two weeks under Operation Pitting.
RAF pilots flew 261,000 miles to carry evacuees to safety — among them 8,000 vulnerable Afghans, many of whom worked for the UK as interpreters or embassy officials.
One C-17 transporter plane leaving Kabul this week carried 436 people, the single biggest capacity flight in RAF history.
Sources: The Sun, Sunday Mirror, Express, Wall Street Journal, Elite UK Forces, The Conversation