Intelligence

Sarah Bryant was on secret mission in Afghanistan

Sarah Bryant was on secret mission in Afghanistan - Times Online

Michael Smith and Jerome Starkey in Kabul

The woman soldier killed in a bomb attack last week was an intelligence officer on a secret mission to meet an Afghan agent, a military source has revealed.

Corporal Sarah Bryant, of the Intelligence Corps, was meeting the agent for the second time deep inside Taliban territory on the border between Helmand and Kandahar provinces. “The agent had produced very good intelligence the first time around,” the source said.

She was accompanied by a four-man SAS close protection team, three of whom were also killed by the blast.

It was not clear whether the agent had been planted by the Taliban or had been unmasked and forced to reveal details of the meeting, the source said. “But it’s clear that the whole thing was compromised. There is no doubt this was an ambush.”

The team was alone on a remote desert track in an area British troops would
not normally patrol. They were in a lightly armoured snatch Land Rover
because it was less obtrusive than a heavily armoured vehicle but it offered
no protection against the 100lb bomb.

The Taliban confirmed they had planted the bomb on the track and were waiting
for Bryant and her close protection team as they approached.

Zabihullah Mujahed, the Taliban spokesman, said the bomb had been detonated by
remote control by an observer waiting for the Land Rover to pass by.

Bryant, 26, from Cotehill, Cumbria, and two of the SAS team died immediately.
One of the other two SAS soldiers managed to call in a medical emergency
response team. The commander survived but his colleague died shortly after
arriving at the British military hospital at Camp Bastion.

In official statements last week the MoD attempted to conceal Bryant’s role,
claiming that she and the SAS soldiers, from 23 SAS Regiment, were
“mentoring” Afghan police officers.

However, General Mohammed Hussein Andiwal, the Afghan police chief in the
region, denied they were working with his men. “There weren’t any police
there,” he said. “Otherwise I would know.”

The three dead SAS reservists have been named as Corporal Sean Reeve, 28, from
Staines, Surrey; Lance-Corporal Richard Larkin, 39, from Evesham,
Worcestershire; and Paul Stout, 31. They will be flown home tomorrow.

British special forces operations in Afghanistan are normally carried out by
the Special Boat Service but it is conducting cross-border operations into
Pakistan.

Bryant’s father, Des Feely, 55, said that his daughter was so good that MI6
had attempted to poach her but she had opted to stay in the army.

June 21, 2008 at 05:52 PM in Middle East, SAS, Terror groups | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home