The SAS in Libya.

Today (6/3/11) has been something of an embarrassing day for Britain. The Sunday Times newspaper revealed that in the very early hours of March 4th a six man troop of British special forces, believed to be members of the Special Air Service (SAS), landed in Benghazi in rebel held Libya. Within an hour these elite soldiers had been captured by rebel forces. Conveniently a few hours after the story had broken publicly the soldiers were released and evacuated from Libya aboard the Royal Navy ship, HMS Cumberland.

Of course this is not the limit or the end of British involvement in the Libyan rebellion. Firstly there were the MI6 teams who went into Libya a couple of weeks before the uprising in order to get it started. As soon as the rebellion had started a special forces team went in eastern Libya to perform a surveillance/intelligence gathering role. Then a second special forces team went into Tripoli in western Libya to provide close protection to a Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) team who were overseeing the evacuation of British passport holders. Then a third team went into provide security to British military aircraft rescuing oil workers from the Libyan desert. There are also rumours that a fifth team went into Benghazi during HMS Cumberland's second visit to act as military advisers to train the Libyan rebels.

So today's performance seems to be an attempt by Britain and the Libyan rebels to convince anyone, especially the Libyan people and the international community that the rebels do not want British help, are not receiving British help and all British special forces have left Libya. Something that is spectacularly untrue.