According to reports, special Forces troops launched an operation to save 20 soldiers surrounded by the Taliban in a desert raid
The move comes after a group of British troops ended up stranded in the Afghan province of Kandahar, it was reported.
The troops sent an SOS signal to their UK HQ, requesting immediate extraction from their desert location, where they had gone into hiding.
However, troops were unable to use the airfield as it was swarmed with members of the Taliban, according to the Daily Mail.
They sent coordinates to the headquarters through coded messages, leaving Royal Air Force (RAF) chiefs to find an aircraft that could land and take off in the desert for the quick rescue.
This comes after UK prime minister Boris Johnson is expected to ask US President Joe Biden to keep American forces in Afghanistan beyond the 31st of August in order to allow evacuation flights to continue.
Upon the arrival of the Special Forces aircraft, online flight tracker websites picked up the RAF Hercules plane, which landed in the pitch black of the night.
It had turned off its identification sensors, meaning it would not be discovered or tracked on any radars, securing the location in which the soldiers were hiding.
Rescuers donned night-vision goggles to carry out the evacuation, before making their swift exit.
The aircraft only later reappeared on flight radars as it headed in the direction of a military base in Dubai.
A source said: ‘It was a very hush, hush mission. Kandahar had fallen to the Taliban on Friday and the guys were down there for five days after that. The enemy were rampant and killing a lot of Afghan Special Forces whom the SAS had been working with. So it was a very urgent mission.
Evacuations have been underway within Afghanistan since the Taliban took control of the country on August the 13th after American troops had been pulled from the country
‘Credit to the Hercules crew from 47 Squadron for landing the aircraft at night on rough terrain and getting her airborne again with the guys and their equipment aboard. It was textbook.’
This comes after the Taliban have been urging people to leave Kabul airport after 12 people had been killed there since Sunday. They died in and around the airport as a result of either gunshots or a stampede, both Taliban and NATO officials have said.
Frustratingly for SAS chiefs the C-130J which rescued their troops is due to be retired as part of the latest reorganisation of the RAF.
The Hercules is the RAF’s major tactical transport aircraft and in its current versions, has been the backbone of UK operational mobility since it was brought into service in 1999. Praised as ‘highly flexible’ by the RAF, it has the ability to airdrop a variety of both stores and paratroopers, while landing and taking off from natural surfaces, such as a desert strip.
The rescue operation was put together by the Joint Special Forces Aviation Wing, with the RAF’s 47 Squadron being behind the aircraft and crew.
The Hercules C130-J is the RAF’s primary tactical transport aircraft, according to their site.
However, it is set to be withdrawn from service in 2022, a decade earlier than originally planned.
