Special Forces and the War in the Dark – Part 6: The Hawk continues to break its wings
Bringing the body of a US special forces soldier who died in Niger back home – Photo: US Air Force
I was saddened to learn that my teammates were injured due to poor planning.
ANDREA N. GOLDSTEIN
Paying blood for flawed intelligence
In 2013, female intelligence officer Andrea N. Goldstein also worked in a US special forces unit based in the Arabian peninsula. Some of her comrades were sent to aid in the framework of Operation Oaken Sonnet.
According to the instructions of the US Africa Command based in Stuttgart (Germany), special forces were assigned to evacuate American citizens from the United Nations (UN) compound in Bor (South Sudan) because of the bloody civil war. Blood just broke out a few days ago.
Intelligence teams in Djibouti and Stuttgart both confirmed the mission site was of low risk.
However, on December 21, 2013, three CV-22 Ospreys aircraft carrying US special forces were attacked by a South Sudanese armed group outside the compound. Four people on board were injured, including one very seriously (who survived but eventually lost a leg).
After evacuating to a safe place, the task force leader called to report the situation. Andrea recounted in the New York Times Magazine, she and a female colleague quietly listened to the team leader describe what they heard and saw to write the intelligence report.
According to the team leader, three planes were shot before landing. After four soldiers were wounded, the planes circled back, refueled in the air, and then continued to fly 800km to Entebbe (Uganda).
There, the wounded were flown by transport planes to Kenya and then transferred to Germany. The next day, American citizens in need of rescue in South Sudan were evacuated by UN and civilian aircraft.
After submitting the initial report, Andrea flooded with emotions that had been suppressed hours ago. She was saddened to learn that her teammates were injured due to poor planning. Intelligence did not take into account the option of being attacked. There is also no medical evacuation plan.
The failure of Operation Oaken Sonnet was reported, but the US military did not study the mistakes made. Damaged aircraft are not inspected.
No one investigated the ambush in South Sudan. There are no reports that analyze why the rescue plan was so sketchy. Everything focused on the brave pilots who flew the bullet-riddled plane back to safety.
It was because of the mistake that was overlooked that four years later, four American special forces soldiers were killed in Niger. According to the US military’s investigation, the task force leader refused to do the task due to the lack of equipment and intelligence, but the commanding officer ignored it.
Finally, on October 4, 2017, they were ambushed by militants affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) in the village of Tongo Tongo (Niger). Four American special forces, four Nigerien soldiers and a translator were killed.
After the Pentagon announced the deaths of four US special operations forces in Niger, Andrea’s phone received a text message from a female colleague who had worked with her to report on the ambush of a plane in South Sudan in 2013.
The message contained only two words: “Oaken Sonnet”. Andrea said this was the first time she cried because of people she did not know. Soldiers can still be betrayed with poor planning, flawed intelligence, and weak leadership.
Andrea N. Goldstein is now a major in intelligence and assistant director of the US Navy’s recovery force. She said that the reason for the failure in the two missions mentioned above was that the military principle of “inviolability” was ignored.
That is, commanding officers who send troops on dangerous missions need to carefully assess all risks and be fully prepared to support forces on the battlefield.
The Israeli Volkswagen was destroyed by the air force – Photo: AFP
Notorious Israeli special forces in ambush
In 2018, a Sayeret Matkal task force (the elite reconnaissance unit of the Israeli General Staff) of eight soldiers infiltrated Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip to install equipment to track the Brigade’s telecommunications systems. Al-Qassam (the military wing of the Hamas Movement) as the Palestinians allege. Failed mission.
Research website Silah Report (USA) reported that in the early evening hours of Sunday 11-11-2018, commander Nour Barakeh of Al-Qassam Brigade suspected a blue Volkswagen minibus, so he instructed the police officer. Report the area to block the vehicle for inspection.
An intelligence officer with Palestinian gunmen stopped the car. The phones of the people in the car are identical in shape, color and most of the content stored. Documents bearing the name of a permanent resident of the Gaza Strip.
The car was searched, the people in the car were separated for interrogation. Everyone said the same thing at first. After that, some people started to contradict themselves. One person said he was going to visit the hospitalized, another said he worked for the international organization Humedica, and the third said he was traveling with relatives who lived nearby.
The interrogation lasted nearly 40 minutes. In the group traveling in the car were a man on crutches pretending to be disabled and two women. During the search, a woman’s bag fell, inside were copies of the Koran, among the women’s clothes.
This made the Al-Qassam forces even more suspicious, so a closer inspection and finding many envelopes with the same serial number and cash amount bearing the names and addresses of many people in the Gaza Strip.
The area intelligence officer reported back to Commander Nour Barakeh. Nour ordered the escort to return for further interrogation. At this point, the people in the car revealed to be the Israeli special forces.
They took pistols hidden in the car and started firing, shooting Nour and another person on the spot and wounding two. One of the special operations team was shot in the chest, later learned that the person shot dead was “Lieutenant Colonel M.” – command of the task force. The detachment withdrew. The chase begins.
At 8:48 p.m., battalion commander Khan Yunis in the east received a report of a firefight and a vehicle fleeing east. The commander ordered to block the road, set up a post and organize a siege.
The Israeli special forces found it difficult to withdraw their troops by road towards the border, so they stood motionless on a farm waiting for support. road no.
The Israeli Air Force has sent aircraft to create a ring of fire between Al-Qassam forces and the Israeli special forces.
At the same time, a Yas’ur 2000 transport helicopter was in charge of the low-flying rescue from the east with two Apache helicopters supporting it. Simultaneously, Israel interfered with radio communications in the area, broadcasting fake reports of a plane being shot down at sea and ordered forces to go west.
This tip does not fool the Palestinian side. The Al-Qassam Brigade continued to ask the units to continue to carry out the previous instructions. Finally, the Israeli military successfully rescued the special forces team from the hostile area.
During the rescue of the special forces team, the Israeli army shot dead battalion commander Khan Yunis and 6 fighters of the Al-Qassam Brigade with a Glock-17 silencer, and 5 others were killed while the Israeli air force was circling. fire belt. After that, the Israeli Air Force tried to destroy what the special forces left behind, but the Al-Qassam Brigade was able to confiscate some documents and machinery on the vehicle.
The French infantry, air force and navy special forces all have snipers. The main task of snipers is observation and intelligence gathering. Snipers not only shoot well, but also need many other qualities.
Next time: Death from afar – sniper special forces
at Blogtuan.info – Source: tuoitre.vn – Read the original article here
