British spies and special forces are working alongside a US-led mission to zero in on Islamic State (ISIS) targets in strife-torn Syria, according to latest reports.
British spies and special forces are working alongside a US-led mission to zero in on Islamic State (ISIS) targets in strife-torn Syria, according to latest reports.
The covert campaign has conducted several drone strikes on key members of the militant group, including the one last month that killed Junaid Hussain, a computer hacker from Birmingham and the second most-wanted Briton after so-called 'Jihadi John' or Mohammed Emwazi.
Special Air Service (SAS) forces and British intelligence officers share intelligence with the Americans to help find ISIS targets and the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) then operates unmanned aircraft on the targeted strikes, The Times reported. If Jihadi John is traced, the US also has an elite team in Iraq that could carry out a raid.
The special operations task force in Iraq comprises Navy Seals, Marines and US army special forces, the newspaper said.
A squadron of SAS soldiers is thought to be operating in Iraqi Kurdistan, embedded with the Kurdish peshmerga forces fighting ISIS militants. The Kurdish troops have proved a vital source of information on the extremists from across the border in Syria.
The SAS and British spies in the region are helping the CIA and JSOC, which has compiled a target list that includes senior members of Al Qaeda operating in Syria.
The programme, first reported in 'The Washington Post' this week, is separate to the wider US-led coalition effort against Islamic State. The initiative is similar to the special forces and intelligence operation set up in Iraq after the 2003 invasion, again under a US command, to kill or capture key members of al-Qaeda.
The SAS was a core strike force within that mission, conducting nightly raids.
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