Operation Marlborough was the code name of a mission carried out by M Squadron
Special Boat Service
The Special Boat Service (SBS) is the special forces unit of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy. The SBS can trace its origins back to the Second World War when the Army Special Boat Section was formed in 1940. After the Second World War, the Roya ...
. The mission involved an SBS team from
Task Force Black, in
Baghdad, Iraq
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the list of largest cities in the Arab world, second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the ...
, on 23 July 2005 with support the
Special Air Service
The Special Air Service (SAS) is a special forces unit of the British Army. It was founded as a regiment in 1941 by David Stirling and in 1950, it was reconstituted as a corps. The unit specialises in a number of roles including counter-terro ...
and U.S. military assets.
Background
On 23 July 2005,
JSOC had developed intelligence on the type of target that US special operations forces would "takedown" but they were committed to Operation Snake Eyes; the information was urgent, so JSOC gave the mission to
Task Force Black.
The information was urgent because it showed that a multiple suicide bombing was about to be launched from an al-Qaeda safehouse in southern
Baghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...
. The only unit on duty at the time was M Squadron
SBS on its second 3-month tour of duty in Iraq; some members of G squadron
22nd SAS Regiment supported the SBS personnel.
Operation
On the night of 23 July 2005, the SBS arrived close to target house in a combination of
GMVs borrowed from
Delta Force
The 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment–Delta (1st SFOD-D), referred to variously as Delta Force, Combat Applications Group (CAG), Army Compartmented Elements (ACE), "The Unit", or within Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), Task Fo ...
and
Pumas, a platoon of
US Army Rangers
United States Army Rangers, according to the US Army's definition, are personnel, past or present, in any unit that has the official designation "Ranger". The term is commonly used to include graduates of the US Army Ranger School, even if t ...
from
Task Force Red acted as a back-up force, as well as some
M1 Abrams tanks and a couple of technical experts from
US special ops community. Overhead, Task Force Black had Pumas carrying snipers in case people in the target building tried to launch an attack; an orbiting command aircraft would also help direct the operation.
When the SBS troops moved on foot to assault the target building a man wearing a suicide vest came running towards them, detonating his vest too early to kill any of the personnel. No one was wounded, however the explosion caused a Puma flying overhead to lose control, but the pilot managed to regain control of the helicopter just before it crashed. One of the airborne platforms watching the target building saw a man leaving the back of the building and running off, snipers from the Puma killed him. The SBS assaulted the house, storming the main building they began clearing rooms, then a suicide bomber ran down the corridor towards them, an SBS
NCO and one of the Team Leaders opened fire on him and killed him. The SBS found explosives everywhere or other components of bomb vests scattered in different parts of the building, they withdrew from the building and left it to the
bomb disposal experts.
Aftermath
The SBS was commended for the operation as was the pilot of the Puma.
[Urban, Mark, ''Task Force Black: The Explosive True Story of the Secret Special Forces War in Iraq '', St. Martin's Griffin , 2012 ,p.89-90,]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marlborough, Operation
Conflicts in 2005
Operations involving American special forces
Operations involving British special forces
21st-century history of the British Army
Special Air Service