The Commanding Officer of the Particular Air Service was focused by army police following the legit killing of an ISIS terrorist, the Mail can reveal.
The ‘CO’ was interviewed underneath warning and accused of overlaying up the ‘homicide’ of a jihadist – when, in truth, he had acted appropriately.
The Lieutenant Colonel was one in all three SAS commanders hounded by police following the capturing in Syria in 2022, inflicting uproar in its ranks.
A five-man SAS staff underneath his command had risked their lives to get rid of the terrorist who had vowed in a chilling propaganda video to explode infidels.
After the incident, the CO and two senior colleagues signed-off the SAS staff’s account of the capturing as correct and proportionate.
However one other senior officer, who beforehand commanded the SAS’s fierce rivals the Particular Boat Service (SBS), disapproved.
Normal Sir Gwyn Jenkins’ intervention led to the five-man SAS staff and the SAS officers being subjected to army police investigations.
SAS troopers legitimately engaged an ISIS terrorist is Syria but they and their Commanding Officer had been hounded by army police and accused of ‘overlaying up’ an Additional-Judicial Killing.
Performing in his capability as Director Particular Forces, Normal Sir Gwyn Jenkins overruled the SAS Commanding Officer over the Syria capturing leading to a three-year prison investigation.
Officers from the Royal Army Police’s Particular Investigation Department interviewed underneath warning the SAS Commanding Officer, a squadron commander and the regiment’s Chief of Employees over the capturing of an ISIS terrorist, triggering a livid response throughout the SAS.
His resolution triggered a livid response at SAS headquarters in Hereford, the place employees rallied across the accused.
Troops believed Sir Gwyn had been influenced by elevated media scrutiny of Particular Forces operations and was placing his profession first.
The probe into the SAS officers, codenamed Operation Tanglement 2, is reported for the primary time as we speak.
On the time Sir Gwyn was serving as Director Particular Forces, chargeable for SAS and SBS missions all over the world.
His intervention got here as United Kingdom Particular Forces had been being investigated by the BBC’s Panorama over counter-terrorist operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
As we speak, Sir Gwyn is the First Sea Lord, the Royal Navy’s most senior officer.
Particulars of Operation Tanglement 2 have emerged because the SAS continues to battle authorized battles on many fronts.
Labour’s Northern Eire Troubles Invoice, which was voted by way of the Home of Commons this week, paves the way in which for Republicans to pressure inquests into SAS operations way back to the Eighties.
Whereas the SAS stays on the centre of a £70million four-year Excessive Courtroom inquiry into its extremely efficient bid to get rid of the Taliban’s bombmaking networks.
In response to senior sources, these challenges to its repute are inflicting senior troopers to give up the SAS in disgust – and to query their function in operations crucial for nationwide safety.
The sword of Damocles hanging over the CO, the regiment’s Chief of Employees and a SAS squadron commander, was solely lifted final 12 months.
Belatedly, they and the SAS troopers who deployed to Syria had been cleared of any wrongdoing. By then a lot of the harm to their careers, and the morale of the regiment, had already been inflicted.
When interviewed, the troopers had been accused of extreme pressure. Supposedly, in the dark on the battlefield, they need to have tried to arrest the ISIS commander.
Final evening, former SAS CO Lieutenant Colonel Richard Williams stated: ‘From the surface this seems to be yet one more pointless and mishandled army police investigation initiated not due to critical considerations, however merely as a self-serving public relations train by London-based and distant headquarters employees, miles from fight.
‘The intervention seems to have been designed to display an enhanced, however extremely performative, diploma of ‘transparency and management to a Panorama-triggered Whitehall and in ways in which understandably undermine SAS confidence in an more and more politicised chain of command. It appears and feels like utter nonsense to me.’
The Mail revealed in March 2024 how 5 SAS troopers had been going through homicide fees over the demise of a jihadist in Syria two years beforehand.
Then, in June 2025, the Mail revealed how the circumstances towards the troopers had been dropped.
The investigation centered on whether or not the troopers had used extreme pressure to get rid of the ISIS terrorist. That probe included counting rounds fired on the evening on the battlefield.
The troopers argued their actions had been applicable as a result of the goal was a suspected suicide bomber who might have been carrying a hidden machine.
The troopers had been arrested in Syria and had been flown again to the UK to be interviewed. They then returned to the warzone. They had been fingerprinted and DNA samples had been taken.
Lastly, in Could 2025 they obtained notices of non-direction saying the circumstances had been being closed.
Defence Secretary Wes Streeting has written to the Royal Army Police instructing its officers to think about considerations raised by their circumstances.
An MOD spokesperson stated: ‘Our personnel are revered worldwide for his or her professionalism and dedication, they usually make extraordinary sacrifices in defence of the nation.
‘Allegations of wrongdoing are thought-about by way of the suitable unbiased investigative and authorized processes. The place allegations come up, it’s proper that they’re correctly assessed and investigated.’
