(UK Special Boat Service troops)

From the Daily Mail:

“At least five British Special Forces commandos have been wounded in gun battles as part of a top-secret UK military campaign in Yemen, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

The elite Special Boat Service (SBS) troops, whose presence in the war-ravaged country is shrouded in secrecy, suffered gunshot injuries in fierce clashes with Iranian-backed rebel militia in recent months.

The SBS men were treated for leg and arm wounds following the battles in the Sa’dah area of northern Yemen, where up to 30 crack British troops are based. The casualties are understood to be now recovering in the UK.

The Mail on Sunday can also reveal how RAF engineers sent to Saudi Arabia to repair the kingdom’s fleet of military aircraft narrowly escaped death last week. Iranian-backed rebels launched a ‘suicide drone’ strike on the King Khalid air base, where they are maintaining Tornado jets used to bomb civilian areas in Yemen.

According to reports, the drone exploded on the runway, destroying two Tornados. The MoD said no UK personnel were wounded.

In response to the revelations, former Minister Andrew Mitchell said last night the UK was ‘shamefully complicit’ in Saudi Arabia’s role in Yemen. He called on the Government to provide further explanations to Parliament about the role of the British troops.”

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British Troops Are Active in Combat in Yemen Parliament demands answers after years of denying involvement

Throughout the past four years, all questions about British military involvement were answered the same way, with claims from the government that there was absolutely no role in the Yemeni conflict. That position collapsed suddenly over the weekend, when media reports revealed that five British special forces operatives were injured in combat in Yemen, supporting the Saudi invasion. The troops were from Special Boat Service. This not only revealed that British troops were in fact involved in Yemen, but perhaps more importantly that the government had been lying about it. Now parliament, particularly the opposition, is demanding to know specifics. This has meant a subtle official shift from “we are not party to the conflict” to them no longer denying that troops are present. Since it’s been established troops are present, and involved in combat, that’s not much of a concession, and parliament is going to be pushing hard to get the truth about involvement in a hugely unpopular war.