Word: squadronal
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...order for the main force to move comes on Sept. 2. That day, in an armored squadron pushing into the city from the north and the south, Grim Troop's Blue Platoon, dubbed the Dragoons, enters from the southeast along an artery code-named Route Corvette, into a predominantly Shi'ite neighborhood. Within 30 minutes, they come under sniper fire. A three-man sniper team from the élite Iraqi Counterterrorism Task Force (akin to the U.S. Delta Force), with a pair of U.S. special-forces liaisons, takes positions in front of the platoon, scanning for muzzle flashes...
Other nations have far fewer branches of their special forces--and much better track records. Britain has just two: the Special Air Service (SAS), which fights on land, and the Special Boat Squadron (SBS), deployed at sea. The Germans have Grenzschutzgruppe (GSG-9), the elite commandos of the Border Protection Group. The Soviets have special forces (known as Spetsnaz) attached to every Red Army unit to perform intelligence gathering and to operate behind enemy lines. In Afghanistan, small (ten-to-15-man) Spetsnaz teams have begun to disrupt the ability of the rebel mujahedin to move freely at night...
...Regardless of whether the bomb missed and who the target was, Adam says the mission put the SAS at the planning table in hunting Bin Laden and resulted in significant roles in other operations. When Three Squadron rotated in during April, Adam says they achieved extraordinary feats of reconnaissance - at one stage astounding the Americans with detailed pictures of weapons being smuggled across the border in a trailer being towed by a red tractor. Even the hard-to-impress British SAS were stunned by Three Squadron's patrols, says one trooper. "The Poms could only last four days. We managed...
...their deployment was not without some larrikin Aussie humor. As One Squadron headed out of the hanger in Kuwait on their way back to Australia, their replacements farewelled them by dropping their trousers and mooning the departing soldiers. "Three Squadron had arrived in good spirits,'' says a former Three Squadron trooper...
...says, "we didn't understand that if somebody around here starts shooting, they aren't necessarily shooting at you. These people all have enemies." After studying reports of the incident, the lieutenant has concluded that in the chaos of battle, at night, and in rough, unfamiliar terrain, the SAS squadron commander wrongly assumed that his men were under attack by al-Qaeda, and believed the only way to save them was to call in an air strike...