, image = Sa'ka Forces logo.png , caption = , dates = 1956-present , country = , allegiance = , command_structure = , branch = Egyptian Army , type = Special Forces , role = , specialization = , size = , garrison =

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...

, current_commander = Major General Emad Abdel Qadir Yamani , notable_commanders = Major General Galal Haredi , nickname = , motto = ''Sweat in training saves the blood in battle'' , colors = black and yellow , march = , mascot = , battles =

North Yemen Civil War The North Yemen Civil War ( ar, ثورة 26 سبتمبر, Thawra 26 Sabtambar, 26 September Revolution) was fought in North Yemen from 1962 to 1970 between partisans of the Mutawakkilite Kingdom and supporters of the Yemen Arab Republic. The ...

, Six Day War,

War of Attrition The War of Attrition ( ar, حرب الاستنزاف, Ḥarb al-Istinzāf; he, מלחמת ההתשה, Milhemet haHatashah) involved fighting between Israel and Egypt, Jordan, the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and their allies from ...

Yom Kippur War The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was an armed conflict fought from October 6 to 25, 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by E ...

Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a Coalition of the Gulf War, 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Ba'athist Iraq, ...

Sinai Insurgency The Sinai insurgency is an ongoing insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt, that was commenced by Islamist militants against Egyptian security forces, which have also included attacks on civilians. The insurgency began during the Egyptian ...

Operation Badr (1973) Operation Badr ( ar, عملية بدر; ''ʻAmaliyat Badr'') or Plan Badr (; ''Khitat Badr'') was the code name for the Egyptian military operation to cross the Suez Canal and seize the Bar Lev Line of Israeli fortifications on 6 October 197 ...

* Shdwan Battle *

Battle of Ismailia The Battle of Ismailia took place between the Egyptian Army and the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) during the last stages of the Yom Kippur War during October 18–22, 1973, south of the city of Ismailia, on the west bank of the Suez Canal in Egy ...

EgyptAir Flight 321 EgyptAir Flight 321 was a Cairo-Luxor Egyptian flight which was hijacked by three armed terrorists claiming to be from the Abd Al-Nasir Movement. After hijacking the aircraft, the terrorists demanded to be flown to Libya. The terrorists agreed t ...

* Operation Sinai *

Operation Martyr's Right Operation Martyr's Right was a military operation conducted by the Egyptian Armed Forces in cooperation with the Egyptian National Police officers, aimed at rooting out and killing jihadist militants. The operation was officially launched on 7 ...

, anniversaries = , identification_symbol = , aircraft_helicopter = El-Sa‘ka Forces ( ar, قوات الصاعقة, lit=Thunderbolt Forces, translit=Kuwat El Sa‘ka), is an Egyptian

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

commando Royal Marines from 40 Commando on patrol in the Sangin">40_Commando.html" ;"title="Royal Marines from 40 Commando">Royal Marines from 40 Commando on patrol in the Sangin area of Afghanistan are pictured A commando is a combatant, or operativ ...

force established by Major General Jalal Mahmoud Fahmy Al-Haridi. High fitness is required and training is conducted at the El Sa‘ka Academy which was built by

Major General Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of ...

Ahmed Ragai Ateya. Unit 777 and Unit 999 are divisions of the Sa'ka forces.Ryan, p.22 The name of the Thunderbolt Forces is originally from Ramses II, who formed a group of the Special Guard. Their mission is to

reconnoiter In military operations, reconnaissance or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, terrain, and other activities. Examples of reconnaissance include patrolling by troops (skirmishers, ...

and attack, and was known as the Thunderbolt. The Major General, Galal Haredi first to establish the Thunderbolt unit in the armed forces in the modern era in 1955. It is reported that

Ahmed Sallahudin Abdul Halim Ahmad ( ar, أحمد, ʾAḥmad) is an Arabic male given name common in most parts of the Muslim world. Other spellings of the name include Ahmed and Ahmet. Etymology The word derives from the root (ḥ-m-d), from the Arabic (), from the ve ...

, who went on to become Commander,

Second Field Army The Second Field Army (第二野战军), initially known as the Central Plains Field Army (中原野战军) or the Liu-Deng Army, was a major military formation of the Chinese Communist Party during the last stages of the Chinese Civil War. The ...

in 1981–83, commanded the 31 Thunderbolt Brigade and Thunderbolt Units in Yemen in 1964 during the

"Operation Rhodes," January 1970

Operation Rhodes Operation Rhodes ( he, מבצע רודוס) was an Israeli heliborne raid against the Egyptian island of Shadwan on 22 January 1970, during the War of Attrition. It was carried out by Israeli paratroopers and Shayetet 13 naval commandos, who too ...

was an Israeli heliborne raid against the Egyptian island of

Shadwan Shadwan () is a barren rocky island 30 miles southwest of the Egyptian city of Sharm el-Sheikh on the Sinai Peninsula and 20 miles northeast of El Gouna. It is the largest of a group of islands in the mouth of the Gulf of Suez in the northern Red ...

on 22 January 1970, during the

. Egyptian Sa'ka Forces commandos faced Israeli

paratroopers A paratrooper is a military parachutist—someone trained to parachute into a military operation, and usually functioning as part of an airborne force. Military parachutists (troops) and parachutes were first used on a large scale during World ...

and Shayetet 13 naval commandos. The Israelis took control of the island for over a day before leaving with 62 captured Egyptian soldiers, mostly from the Sa'ka Forces, and

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, we ...

equipment. Gawrych 2000, pp. 115-116 Egypt had launched the

in order to weaken Israel's hold on the territories in the

Sinai Sinai commonly refers to: * Sinai Peninsula, Egypt * Mount Sinai, a mountain in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt * Biblical Mount Sinai, the site in the Bible where Moses received the Law of God Sinai may also refer to: * Sinai, South Dakota, a place ...

it had captured during the 1967

Six-Day War The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab states (primarily Egypt, Syria, and Jordan) from 5 to 10 Ju ...

. Refusing to limit the war to the canal front, in January 1970 Israeli ground forces were tasked with a strike at the isolated and lightly garrisoned Shadwan. The aim of the raid was to capture Egyptian POWs to be exchanged for Israeli prisoners in Egypt, and to sabotage a local radar post which was deemed a threat to Israeli shipping in the Gulf of Suez. Gawrych 2000, p. 114 Milstein 1985, pp. 1315-1323 The task of taking Shadwan was assigned to the IDF's Paratroopers Brigade under the command of Haim Nadal. Its 202nd Battalion, commanded by Lt. Colonel Ya'acov Hasdai, and the brigade's elite reconnaissance company ( Sayeret Tzanhanim), commanded by Captain Motti Paz, were to land on the island. The Egyptian garrison on Shadwan was headquartered in the island's lighthouse, at its southern tip. The lighthouse was defended by a fortified perimeter consisting of 9 outlying outposts and manned by a company of Egyptian Sa'ka commandos. In all, 100 Egyptian soldiers were present on Shadwan, of which 60 were commandos and the rest Egyptian Navy and technical personnel. After an airstrike, Operation Rhodes commenced on the morning of January 22, 1970. With the defenders thus engaged, Israeli ground forces started landing on Shadwan, ferried to the island by

Bell 205 The Bell 204 and 205 are the civilian versions of the UH-1 Iroquois single-engine military helicopter of the Huey family of helicopters. They are type-certificated in the transport category and are used in a wide variety of applications, inc ...

and Aerospatiale Super Frelon helicopters. Within an hour after landing, all but three outposts had fallen to the paratroops. One Israeli soldier, corporal Haim Isrovich, was killed by sniper fire. By 15:30 fighting had ceased. 14 Egyptians had been captured and 17 killed. Several dozen more POWs were found in subsequent scouring of the island. Holding the island throughout the night, Israeli forces received the order to evacuate at 11:50 on the morning of January 23. All structures save for the lighthouse were demolished and the forces withdrew with 62 Egyptian POWs and a captured British

Decca radar The Decca Radar company was a British manufacturer of radar systems. There were originally two divisions, Marine and Heavy Radar, with separate product lines. The latter was sold to Plessey in 1965, and the term "Decca Radar" normally refers t ...

set. The last helicopter, bearing Haim Nadal, departed the island at 17:40. 3 Israelis had been killed and 7 injured, while Israeli spokesmen put the number of Egyptian fatalities at 70, including both soldiers on Shadwan and on the sunk torpedo boats. Egypt admitted to 80 soldiers killed, wounded or missing, but attempted to paint the Israeli raid in the best possible light. It initially reported that Israelis "attempted to land" on the island and had suffered 30 casualties and lost 2 aircraft, and later stated Israeli forces failed to remain on the island "due to stiff resistance on land and massive air strikes". The Egyptian press focused on the actions of Captain Hosni Hamad, who had lost his life leading the torpedo boats to the island under his own initiative.

Brigades and groups

Dani Asher wrote in 2009 that "when the

broke out there were twenty-four commando battalions in the Egyptian army, organised into six groups (''majmu'ot''), each of which consisted of three to five battalions. Support units included one battalion of Sager anti-tank missiles and a group of

BM-21 The BM-21 "Grad" (russian: БМ-21 "Град", lit= hail) is a self-propelled 122 mm multiple rocket launcher designed in the Soviet Union. The system and the M-21OF rocket were first developed in the early 1960s, and saw their first comba ...

s (122mm rocket launchers)."

Structure

Most sources use Trevor Dupuy's commando brigade designations: 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, and 134. But Dani Asher clearly defines six commando groups (group = brigade size). He doesn't identify the groups, but from Arab sources, the following designations are available: 39, 127, 129, 136, 139, and 145. The 127th Brigade is listed in the

Defense Intelligence Agency The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) is an intelligence agency and combat support agency of the United States Department of Defense, specializing in defense and military intelligence. A component of the Department of Defense (DoD) and the ...

's released order of battle for 1967. In 1990 there were five brigade-sized commando groups; from 2011 to 2019, the

International Institute for Strategic Studies The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) is a British research institute or think tank in the area of international affairs. Since 1997, its headquarters have been Arundel House in London, England. The 2017 Global Go To Think ...

' ''Military Balance'' has continued to list a total of five commando groups. The Sa'ka consists of eight Special Forces Regiments/Groups (Brigade level) (117th, 123rd, 129th, 135th, 141st, 147th, 153rd, 159th) (of which 3 Lightning/Saaqa regiments and three Commandos regiments, the remaining two are the Marine Commandos and the Infiltration Anti-terror units). It is not clear whether references to three Infiltration Anti-terror Battalions (777th, 888th, 999th) are also a reference to Unit 777 and Unit 999.

Notes

References

* Ryan, Mann and Stillwell (2003). ''The Encyclopedia of the World's Special Forces''. {{Egyptian Army * :ar:وحدات الصاعقة (مصر) Special forces of Egypt Military units and formations established in 1956