According to the Daily Telegraph, soldiers from 22 SAS Regiment started leading Libyan opposition fighters after being ordered in by Prime Minister David Cameron.
Defence sources admitted that SAS soldiers have been in Libya for several weeks. Adding they had been sent to the country to direct air strikes on major military targets and have been ordered to aid Libyan opposition forces on the ground to find Gaddafi.
As a £1 million bounty was proposed on Gaddafi’s head, the British soldiers, who dressed in Arab citizen clothes and holding revolutionary forces weapons, have been ordered to look for Libya’s falling dictator.
Defence Secretary Liam Fox declined to comment on the presence of UK soldiers on the ground in Libya, claiming only British military advisers are now in Libya, aiding the fighters with “communications, logistics, the chain of command and so on.”
“NATO is providing intelligence and reconnaissance assets to help in the hunt for Gaddafi and the remnants of the regime,” he added.
The head of the National Transitional Council (NTC) Mustafa Abdel Jalil insisted they wanted Gaddafi “dead or alive,” adding the council would provide amnesty for members of Gaddafi’s close circle who kill or capture the ruler.
“Businessmen in Benghazi have set-up an award of two million Libyan dinars for anyone who captures Gaddafi and from another hand, the National Transitional Council announces that anyone from his inner circle who kills Gaddafi or captures him, shall receive amnesty from the community,” Jalil said.
“We know Gaddafi’s regime is not over yet. The end will only come when he’s captured, dead or alive. Gaddafi’s forces and his accomplices will not stop resisting until Gaddafi is caught or killed,” he added.
Western governments including Britain, France, and the US began bombing “military targets” over Libya on March 19, after the UN Security Council approved a resolution on March 17, authorizing force by whatever means necessary, with the exception of a ground invasion, to “protect civilians.”
Since March 31, when the US-led Western military alliance took over command of the airstrikes on a UN mandate, its warplanes have carried out around 11,644 sorties over the country.
SAB/MTM/HE