Blades: The Untold Story of SAS Operations in Afghanistan

In
2017, reports emerged that Britain’s Special Air Service, the country’s most
celebrated regiment, was being investigated over allegations its soldiers had executed
scores of captives in Afghanistan. These unprecedented accusations led to a
damning shift in perceptions of the armed forces, with soldiers widely
castigated as war criminals. But these reports misrepresented the reality of
the operations.

Blades lifts the lid on events in Afghanistan, detailing the heroic
efforts of the Special Forces in the country for the first time and revealing how
government-imposed restrictions meant the enemy’s bombmakers could not legally be
shot or detained. Failed by their government and their generals, soldiers faced
an agonising dilemma: obey the rules and let their colleagues be killed or
enact frontier justice and face accusations of war crimes.

These
events would trigger Operation Northmoor, the biggest and most sensitive UK military
police investigation ever undertaken. Along the way, detectives faced a wall of
silence and collusion by senior officers, with vital evidence being destroyed.

Drawing
on thorough research; exclusive interviews with SAS soldiers, officers, service
chiefs and senior diplomats; and decades of experience as the Daily Mail’s
defence and diplomacy editor, Mark Nicol offers a nuanced analysis and a vital
corrective to false reporting on Afghanistan. Ultimately, Blades is an
unflinching account of profound heroism in the face of state interference and a
long-overdue defence of those who proudly protected their country.