Special forces sent to hunt down BigleyÂ’s killer
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Special forces sent to hunt down BigleyÂ’s killer
The Herald
IAN BRUCE and MICHAEL SETTLE
October 11 2004
AMERICA has transferred its ultra-secret Task Force 121 commando unit from the hunt for Osama bin Laden to tracking down Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the Jordanian terrorist thought responsible for the beheading of British hostage Kenneth Bigley.
The unit, composed of US special forces with detachments from Britain's SAS, has been ordered "as a matter of urgency" to find and kill or capture al Zarqawi, the ruthless leader of the Tawhid and Jihad organisation in Iraq.
The commando unit's transfer from Afghanistan to Iraq is seen as a reflection both of the failure of coalition intelligence to pinpoint bin Laden's whereabouts and of the urgency to end al Zarqawi's headline-grabbing role in hostage-taking and car-bomb atrocities in Iraq.
Task Force 121's move was last night confirmed by Major-General John Cooper, the former King's Own Scottish Borderers' officer who is deputy commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan.
The special forces unit, sometimes known as "the activity" or "grey fox", has spent almost a year operating in the mountains on the Afghan-Pakistan border. Before that, it was instrumental in locating and arresting Saddam Hussein and in the trapping and killing of his two sons, Uday and Qusai.
News of the enhanced effort to find al Zarqawi came as a sickening video of Mr Bigley's final moments circulated on the internet. In five minutes of footage posted on an Islamic website, the 62-year-old engineer makes one last desperate plea for his life.
Mr Bigley makes a direct appeal to Tony Blair, saying: "Here I am again, Mr Blair, very, very close to the end of my life. You do not appear to have done anything at all to help me." He adds his captors' patience "is wearing thin". Moments later, he is beheaded.
Yesterday, Hoshiyar Zebari, Iraq's interim foreign minister, said it was "likely" the Briton had briefly escaped. Iraqi sources said Mr Bigley was free for up to 12 hours after being helped by one of his kidnappers. However, after taking a wrong turn he was recaptured and executed.
As prayers were said for Mr Bigley and his family in their home city of Liverpool and across the UK, Peter Kilfoyle, their local MP, warned other contract workers contemplating going to Iraq: "Don't go. It's a war zone."
Last night Iraqi kidnappers released 10 Turkish hostages they had held for over a month after their Turkish employer said it would leave Iraq, al Jazeera television said.
At Westminster, the prime minister provoked fresh controversy when it was revealed he was drawing up a "special Iraq honours list" to reward civil servants. A leaked Whitehall memo showed officials who worked on the flawed weapons dossier could be in line for awards in the New Year's honours list. Mr Blair is said to believe as many as 50 non-military officials should be given knighthoods, OBEs, MBEs and other awards.
Last night, a Downing Street spokesman said: "We don't comment on leaks," then added: "This is primarily about recognising the sacrifice of people who have worked at the sharp end in Iraq. "
In Baghdad, car bombers struck twice in rapid succession in the Iraqi capital yesterday, killing at least 11 people including an American soldier and wounding around 16.
The attacks came as Donald Rumsfeld, US defence secretary, arrived for an unannounced visit, his first to the country since the US handed over sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government June 28.
Libya has arrested a group of 17 people "of Indian and Central Asian origin", suspected of links to al Qaeda, saidEgypt's official Middle East News Agency. It quoted Nasser al-Mabrouk Abdallah, Libyan public order minister, as saying "preliminary investigations proved that this group of 17 people had relations to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda organisation".
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If their luck with Osama is anything to go by, I'll say they'll be wasting their time in Iraq too.
Anyway even if they do find him, so wat? Its not gonna bring Bigley back to life & more importantly, its not gonna stop terror attacks. -
Hmmmz...well perhaps such a public statement is used to bullshit bin Laden into believing that the coalition forces are diverting their attention to the Iraqi region.Perhaps,with such a statement,the motive is to lure him out,make him complacent and thus fark up.THis will enable them to track and hunt him down,before taking him apart piece by piece.
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Could not sleep last night, and watched a documentary on British TV. It was about the force deployments in Afghanistan and how the US is spread thin, providing security for the elections and also hunting the Taliban.
The US has only 18 000 troops in AFG. To boost their forces, they pay a lot of money to several thousand tribal warriors. There was this film clip which showed a heli-borne operation with a combined force of US soldiers and Afghan warriors. The Afghan warriors looked like clowns in their turbans and long robes dis-embarking from Chinooks and carrying very little apart from their rifles!
Anyway, the Special Forces presence was reportedly scaled down to a few ops cells that are mainly coordinating spies and local fighters who are still searching the border areas with Pakistan. They only insert when there is reasonable evidence of Taliban presence. When the documentary was made in the summer, the heli-borne operation that was filmed was apparently the first major one (more than 200 troops) in this year.
The biggest (near term) threat is this problem of kidnappings of foreign workers in Iraq. So I am not surprised the US and UK has re-allocated resources. -
Forget the US Special Force(Heavy Overated), SAS is the BEST IMHO. Unfortunately they always play second fiddle to the BIG UNCLE.....
Unless a with the help of a big time traitor, i doubt US(Intelligence) is good to capture anyone of significant in Iraq. -
The Fame Bravo 2-0 in the gulf war never accomplish its mission.
Base on intelligent report from British renowned Secret Intelligent Service, MI6, CIA was convince that Iraq still had WMD. CIA inturn convince Collin Powell to bring the matter to the UN base on the British report.
Israel's covert action forces are much better for the job though. But they've tried to avoid issues that don't concern them until recently, OBL wasn't even on their wanted list. -
We need a combined Sayeret Mat'kal/SAS task force to have a speedy military resolution to the threats in Iraq.If you have noticed, the SAS and the Royal Marines are better at local diplomacy and are more attuned to the needs of the places they are running, perhaps it's the legacy of being a colonial power, which lets them have a more sensitive ear to the ground should trouble develop.
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For the British, call it experience gleaned from security ops in Northern Ireland, and yes, to a large extent, their experience with former colonies, and the guerilla warfare they had to fight (e.g. Boer War, Confrontasi and Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya).
Also the British are not overloaded with technology. Budget not as big as the USA. So Humint (human Intel) is more important to them.
Some of the older soldiers involved in Northern Ireland are still around. And they are still guiding and directing ground ops in either very senior NCO level or at least brigade comdr level. -
hopefully their track record on hunting osama will not be in run here.
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Send in Rainbow Six?
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First, you have to request clearance from Tom ClaneyOriginally posted by Icemoon:Send in Rainbow Six? 
Second, as long as it is lead by US, the results are predictable....
Mission FAILED
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Yeah, US spec ops are usually clumsy. SAS better. But Mossad is still the best.