A 100-man team of Anglo-American troops was flown into western Iraq

LONDON February 1 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A group of more than 100 men, consisting of the U.S. Delta force and 35 men from Britain's Special Air Service (SAS), flew into Iraq by Chinook helicopter from Jordan, a leading British newspaper reported Saturday, February 1.

The mission was mounted after U.S. intelligence reports claimed that Scud missile launchers had been moved to the western Iraqi desert, the Daily Telegraph said.

The 100-man joint force checked that the launchers were not false targets as part of an Iraqi deception plan.

The SAS has mounted a six-day covert mission into western Iraq to identify key targets in the event of a war, the paper quoted defense sources as saying Friday, January 31.

The joint team also examined Iraqi military command posts and communication bunkers identified by satellite and aerial imagery to ensure that they were active and that they could use laser designators to identify them as targets for allied aircraft, said the Telegraph.

According to the paper, the force set off from the Jordanian air base at Azraq alShishan, east of Amman, flying along a corridor in the Iraqi air defenses opened up by allied attacks on the main Iraqi air defense command post.

“The decision of the government in Amman to allow limited numbers of allied special forces to operate from its territory was based in part on the fact that eight of the Scud missiles launched by (Iraq) during the Gulf War landed inside Jordan rather than Israel,” said the Telegraph.

The Pentagon confirmed this week that U.S. Special Forces were operating in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq.

However, the joint SAS-Delta force operation is the first confirmed case of allied special forces operating inside territory controlled by the Iraqi government.

During the 1991 Gulf War, the SAS was not used until after the war had begun. In that conflict, the Iraqis moved dummy missile launchers and tanks to deceive the West.

This is not SAS's only mission in Iraq after the Telegraph reported last week that SAS will play a vital part in the attempt to remove Iraqi President Saddam from power.

The Pentagon believes Saddam has ordered his military engineers to rig well heads in southern Iraq with explosives, which he will detonate once the U.S.-led invasion begins, said the paper.

According to the Telegraph, the plan to rescue the wells is understood to involve using the SAS and troops from 16 Air Assault Brigade, who can deploy either from helicopters or by parachuting from aircraft, in a "seize and protect" operation, with tanks from the 7th Armored Brigade - the Desert Rats - providing a defensive ring.

The SAS will be the spearhead force, securing and neutralizing the well heads in a series of covert raids, with the help of paratroopers who will provide them with protection.

Troops will form a defensive barrier to repel any Iraqi counter-attack until the arrival of tanks and armored infantry, who will link up with them within 48 hours, added the paper.

One senior officer told The Telegraph: "This is a classic airborne operation in which the light forces of the SAS and Paras will be dropped behind enemy lines to seize a specific objective. Once seized, they will hold and defend it until they can be reinforced. The Paras have been practicing this type of operation for years."