SBT Newspaper 06 Jul 17

The UK’s No: 1 Veterans Magazine 05 Fortnightly 06/07/2017
ARMED FORCES & VETERANS NEWS IN BRIEF
SAS Suspected of
Potential War Crimes
£5,000 reward on offer to help veteran
find medals lost in Staffordshire
A Special Air Service (SAS)
unit is suspected of executing
unarmed civilians in
Afghanistan and fabricating
reports to cover up potential
war crimes, according to
reports. Special forces soldiers
allegedly murdered
Afghans during raids on their
homes and then planted
guns at the scene to make it
appear as though they had
been Taliban insurgents.
Some of the victims were
handcuffed and hooded
before being shot dead,
Royal Military Police (RMP)
sources told the Sunday
Times. Many of the alleged
assassinations relate to a
campaign of night raids
designed to bring down the
Taliban by capturing their
leaders and taking them to
detention centres for interrogation.
British Army officers
speaking to the Times claimed
some SAS soldiers
adopted a “shoot-to-kill”
policy during the missions,
which were often said to rely
on flawed intelligence.
“Credible and extremely
serious” evidence about the
potential scandal has been
gathered by Operation
Northmoor, a classified RMP
investigation based in an
underground bunker in
Cornwall. The initial inquiry,
which was investigating
unlawful killings between
2010-2013, and offences
including false imprisonment
and assault, was expected to
run until 2021. However, the
Ministry of Defence recently
told RMP officers to finish
most of their work by this
summer.
UK prepared to retaliate
against future Cyber Attack
Britain could launch military retaliation
such as air strikes against
a future cyber attack, the Defence
Secretary has suggested. Sir Michael
Fallon warned potential attackers
that a strike on UK systems
“could invite a response
from any domain - air, land, sea
or cyberspace". The Defence Secretary
said the UK's ability to
carry out its own cyber attacks
against Islamic State in Iraq and
Levant (Isil), also known as Daesh,
had saved lives during the
battle for Mosul in Iraq and the
capability was also being used in
the fight for Raqqa in Syria. Meanwhile
the head of the US Army
said governments are relying too
much on overstretched elite special
forces such as the SAS and
Delta Force to try to win conflicts.
Gen Mark Milley said it was a
myth that special forces “can do
it all” and they were being asked
to conduct missions they were
not designed for. He spoke at a
conference in London as the
head of the Chief of the General
Staff said the British Army was
now at its smallest since the time
of Oliver Cromwell. The Coalition
government cut the regular army
from 102,000 to 82,000 after the
cost-cutting 2010 defence review
However, the British Army is now
at just over 78.000.
A £5,000 reward is up for grabs for anyone who provides information
to find four World War Two medals owned by a veteran
which were lost in Staffordshire. Alfred Barlow, 95, is a D-Day
veteran who was on his way home after attending the annual
anniversary pilgrimage to Normandy earlier this month when his
medals went missing. Alfred, a corporal with the 3rd
Reconnaissance Corps who landed on "Sword" beach on the
coastline of Normandy on 6 June 1944, aged 24, noticed during
a rest break at a service station on the M6 Toll at Cannock, that
all four of his service medals were missing. Independent charity
Crimestoppers has today offered a reward of £5,000 for the
arrest and conviction of those involved and the recovery of all
four medals. In January Alfred was awarded France's highest
civil honour for bravery, the Legion d'Honneur. Lord Ashcroft,
chairman of Crimestoppers, who initiated this reward, said: "After
such a moving and poignant trip to Normandy, to lose or have
stolen his war medals has been incredibly distressing for this
brave former soldier. Whilst the actual value of the medals is
nominal, the sentimental value is enormous. Our reward reflects
the war veteran's invaluable service to our country." Actor, Hugh
Grant has also conveyed his wish to reward the return of the
medals. The medals include the 1939-1945 Star, the France and
Germany Star, the 1939-1945 War Medal &the Palestine Medal.
The Missing Medals: Reward posted for £5,000
Brecon Gurkha conquers
Mount Everest
A soldier from the Infantry
Battle School in Brecon conquered
Mount Everest to
mark 200 years of Gurkhas
service in the British Army.
Rifleman Rakesh Sunuwar,
originally from Kodari in
Nepal, successfully reached
the summit on Tuesday, May
16 at 9.42am during his
second attempt at scaling the
famous mountain. The
Gurkhas are a fierce brigade
of Nepalese soldiers who
have served under the British
Army since 1815. The original
attempt to mark the bicentenary,
on April 25 2015, was
halted due to an earthquake
early on in the expedition.
The Nepalese Government
suspended all climbs as the
path was too dangerous.
The 7.8-magnitude earthquake
and its subsequent avalanche
swept away the base
camp, causing a large number
of casualties and deaths
among the many members of
the international climbing fraternity
who gather each
spring for the annual weather
window when it is easiest to
make an attempt on the summit.
The route to the summit
was completely destroyed.
Thinking back to that terrible
earthquake, He said: “It was
a tragic moment for me and
for the whole Brigade of
Gurkhas. It had taken me
three years of hardship and
intensive training to come this
far.
Facebook nightmare for Commando after attack during night out
Royal Marine’s Year From Hell
A Royal Marine said he has had
the ‘year from hell’ after a Facebook
post went viral accusing
him of assaulting a teenage girl.
Jason Raynor claims he merely
pushed away Kayleigh Rodda
when she allegedly attacked him
in Portsmouth town centre last
year. However after the then 19-
year-old girl posted pictures online,
vigilantes reportedly spent the
next 12 months threatening to
break the 28-year-old marine’s
legs. In May 2016, he had been
out with two friends when a row ensued
between himself and a group
of navy personnel. According to
the dad-of-one, Rodda, who had
been talking to the navy officers,
‘came at him’ and stuck her nails
in his head – so he pushed her
away. However a month later she
shared images of Jason on social
media along with marks on her
neck claiming that he had assaulted
her in a bid to track him down.
After the post was shared almost
40,000 times, Jason voluntarily
went to a station to speak to police
and was released with ‘no further
action’ – though thanks to the post
people still threatened to hurt him
and told his wife to leave him. A
year on, Kayleigh has re-shared
her post, describing the nightmares
that the incident left her with
and mocking Jason for claiming it
was self defence. Today, Jason
has spoken out about the abuse
he has suffered thanks to the post,
which he believes shows the danger
of social media user believing
everything they read in a post.
Jason, from Bolton, Lancashire,
said: ‘In her statement [to police],
it clearly says that she came at me
first. So I have acted in self defence
to get her away from me because
I was pinned up against the wall by
two lads. ‘I had never seen her before
in my life. I was just out on a
night out, I had been playing cricket
and I had a cup final the next
day so I wasn’t drunk. ‘It was nothing
to do with her. I was having an
argument with two lads and then
she came at me saying “don’t argue
with my friend”. ‘She came at
me and stuck her nails in my head.
My head was cut, so then I had my
head down, she had her nails in
me, there were these two lads I
was arguing with and I was on my
own so I just grabbed her and got
her away from me. ‘That’s all I did.
I just pushed her away. I don’t
know [where I grabbed her] as my
head was down, but I just pushed
her away. ‘I waited for about 10 minutes
and then I ran off. There were
no police there at the time.
‘I was advised by a solicitor to go
down the route of getting her done
as she openly said she came at me
first. But I just thought no, I want to
move on with my life, so forget it.
‘A lot of people twist things on social
media. This story is totally the
wrong way round. ‘I have had threats
and everything because people
have seen this story that she
has put online and they have been
messaging me saying they are
going to break my legs and rip my
arms off and everything. A spokesperson
from Hampshire Police
said: ‘A 27-year-old man from Somerset
was identified as being involved
in the incident and voluntarily
attended a police station to give
an account under caution. No further
action was taken by police.
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