Military News

UK’s SAS veterans are coming out of retirement to fight ISIS

The jihadist group Daesh (as ISIS hates to be called) warned the UK  it "will suffer the lion's share of the slaughter it plans for Europe." British military vets are going to be ready. <a href="https://assets.rbl.ms/17295520/origi…
Blake Stilwell Avatar

The jihadist group Daesh (as ISIS hates to be called) warned the UK  it “will suffer the lion’s share of the slaughter it plans for Europe.” British military vets are going to be ready.


The threat Daesh poses to Europe is being taken very seriously by members of the United Kingdom’s veteran community. So seriously, in fact, almost 60 former members of Britain’s Special Air Service (SAS), the UK’s most elite special forces outfit, are looking to get back in the fight.

According to the UK’s Mirror, 30 SAS operators, veterans of the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and beyond have reenlisted, while 30 more are on standby to do the same. The SAS, along with U.S. special forces operators are currently fighting Daesh in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

Related: American dudes with rifles make a quick stop in Libya and no one knows why

The recent Daesh attacks on Paris give the effort to fight the terror group abroad new urgency. Just as French special operators are on the streets of Paris and conducting counterterror operations they learned from Israeli commandos, the SAS’ elite counterterrorism unit, the Special Projects Group, are currently patrolling London in unmarked civilian vehicles.

“Former members of the SAS do rejoin the regiment, especially when there is a war approaching,” an unnamed British government source told the Mirror. “It happened after the 9/11 attacks and when the Iraq War began. But we have never seen a response like this.”