Two members of the gang that killed six British military policemen in Iraq were secretly hunted down and eliminated by the SAS, a new book has claimed.
The June 2003 murders of the Red Caps, just weeks after the fall of Saddam Hussein, was the single greatest loss of British military life to hostile action during the entire Iraq conflict.
For over two decades, it was widely believed the killers had escaped across the Iranian border.
But in “Blades”, by Mark Nicol, SAS sources say they found and killed two of the Iran-backed gang members responsible.
Senior military figures are said to have blocked further operations, fearing retaliation against British troops in the predominantly-Shia southern Iraq.
John Miller, the father of Corporal Simon Miller, who was just 21 when he died, said he was stunned to discover the SAS had “meted out justice”.
He told The Mail on Sunday: “This has been kept from us for 23 years. I can’t believe we are hearing it now, from you.
“I am very pleased to hear two of them are dead. I hope the SAS soldiers emptied their magazines into them, as they did to our Si.
PICTURED: Soldiers carry the coffin of Corporal Paul Long, one of the six British military policemen killed in Iraq
|
GETTY
“But it is another sickening blow for the families that the SAS were stopped from hunting down the others. They got away with it. The SAS catching these guys was our best chance of justice.”
The families have long accused the Government of covering up the circumstances of the killings.
The five other Red Caps killed in the attack were Sergeant Simon Hamilton-Jewell, 41, Corporal Russell Aston, 30, Corporal Paul Long, 24, Lance Corporal Ben Hyde, 23, and Lance Corporal Tom Keys, 20.
They were executed inside a police station in Majar al-Kabir, in southern Iraq’s Maysan province, after an angry demonstration erupted nearby.
Iraqi officers stationed there abandoned the building minutes before the murders took place.
Within days, SAS operatives returned to the same station, posing as mourning comrades of the dead soldiers.
During that covert visit, Iraqi police handed over the names of those responsible for the killings.
Reflecting on the secret mission, an SAS officer says in the book: “We couldn’t believe how disinterested UK commanders were in finding those responsible. We just got on with it and got lucky.
PICTURED CLOCKWISE: Sergeant Simon Alexander Hamilton-Jewell, Corporal Russell Aston, Corporal Paul Graham Long, Lance-Corporal Thomas Richard Keys, Lance-Corporal Benjamin John McGowan Hyde and Corporal Simon Miller
|
PA
“We got their names and went after the murderers. But the reaction from the hierarchy was: ‘Stop, you’re stirring up opposition to us.’
“Every one of those gang members posed a live threat to UK forces. We would have got them all given the chance. We flew back to Baghdad knowing more British troops’ lives would be lost because of the reluctance of senior officers to confront the Iranian threat.”
The families have consistently challenged the conclusions of a 2006 inquest which found the deaths were unavoidable.
In a further source of grievance, nine Iraqi police officers were dished out £800,000 in compensation in 2013 after claiming they were tortured during efforts to identify the killers.
The MoD has offered its “heartfelt sympathies” to the victims’ families but does not publicly discuss SAS operations.
Leave a Reply