Ultimate Risk: SAS Contact Al Qaeda

In November 2001, in the biggest and most destructive mission in recent SAS history, half of the world's most elite regiment took on al Qaeda's crack forces in Afghanistan. This is the first-hand account of that battle, drawing on the memories of the men who fought in it.
The target was a Ýpound¨50 million opium storage plant, which doubled as an al Qaeda local command centre, in Helmand province. The mission had three objectives: to kill as many terrorists as possible; to collect enemy intelligence; and to destroy the opium, the main source of income for the Taliban regime.
The SAS had been waiting to go into action since 11 September, following the attack on the World Trade Center. Yet for the first time in SAS history, the regiment's soldiers were nervous: many of their number were battle virgins and the few old guard were unsure as to how these untried young men would fare in what was to be one of the most dangerous missions the SAS had ever undertaken. It involved a perilous advance to contact across open ground and yet there had been no time for CTRs (Close Target Reccies). Neither was there any real support from US forces, who thought the mission was too risky and provided just one hour's 'top cover' - protection from US Navy fighter jets - to assist in the attack. It culminated in a four-hour close-quarter fight, leaving many enemy dead and yet, as the soldiers reveal, only a miracle prevented the biggest loss to life in SAS history.

Mark Nicol grew up in Hereford, where his father served in a regiment for 15 years. He specialised in military reporting and has exclusively covered the SAS inside Afghanistan.