Miliband stopped SAS op to kill Soleimani
Former Labour minister called off attack on general in 2007 as it emerges PM was not warned of strike
‘This is essentially a declaration of war against Iran and they have a pretty wide menu [of targets] from which to choose’
THE SAS planned to assassinate Qassim Soleimani, Iran’s military chief, during the Iraq War but were stopped by personal intervention from David Miliband, Labour’s foreign secretary.
The Daily Telegraph has learnt that British special forces were ready to kill Soleimani in 2007 when he was identified as the man running a campaign against UK troops in the southern port city of Basra.
The SAS had him in their “crosshairs”, sources said, but Mr Miliband called off the operation, meaning
Soleimani survived until he was killed yesterday morning in a US drone strike.
It emerged that Boris Johnson was given no advance warning of the US rocket attack in Baghdad despite Britain having hundreds of soldiers stationed in the area.
Government sources told The Telegraph it caught Downing Street and Whitehall “by surprise”, angering ministers who had to scramble to react to the rapidly escalating crisis.
The failure by the US to alert Britain to an attack just 40 miles from where 500 Army personnel were stationed raised questions about the strength of US-UK relations as Donald Trump prepared to bid for a second term in power.
Soleimani, commander of the elite Quds Force unit of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, was found to be running a campaign by Iranian-backed Shia militias in southern Iraq in 2007 to carry out terrorist attacks against British troops.
As part of Iran’s attempts to undermine coalition attempts to restore order in Iraq, Soleimani sponsored Shia militia groups that carried out deadly attacks against American and British troops, including car bombs and improvised explosive devices.
British commanders responded by sending British special forces to destroy Iranian-run militias. An SAS team was given the task of assassinating Soleimani. When the unit located him and was set to carry out its mission, the operation was called off on the orders of Mr Miliband.
“The Foreign Secretary said that he wanted to talk to the Iranians, not kill them,” recalled a senior military officer based in Basra at the time. “We had Soleimani in our crosshairs, but we had to call the operation off because of sensitivities in London about conducting this type of operation.”
The failure by the US to tell Britain of yesterday’s strike left Mr Johnson, currently on holiday in Mustique with his girlfriend Carrie Symonds, open to attack from critics who accused him of “working on his tan” instead of taking steps to avoid “World War III”.
Mr Johnson, who is expected to fly home this weekend, was “aware and engaged” with developments, Downing Street said, but failed to make any public statement during the day.
A Government source said of the drone strike: “It did catch us by surprise and it’s fair to say that inevitably these things can always be handled better.” Tory MP Tom Tugendhat, an ex-soldier who was chairman of the foreign affairs committee in the last parliament, said: “I’ve long believed the purpose of having allies is that we can surprise our enemies and not each other, and it’s been a pattern sadly … that the US administration of late has not shared with us, and that is a matter of concern.”
Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, spoke to Mike Pompeo, his US opposite number, by phone yesterday, but the Foreign Office refused to release details of what was said.
Mr Raab called for “de-escalation” in the region, rather than backing America’s behaviour.
In a statement he said: “We have always recognised the aggressive threat posed by the Iranian Quds force led by Qassim Soleimani. Following his death, we urge all parties to de-escalate. Further conflict is in none of our interests.”
Jeremy Corbyn, Labour’s leader, criticised the drone strikes, saying they were “an extremely serious and dangerous escalation of conflict with global significance.”
He added: “The UK Government should urge restraint on the part of both Iran and the US, and stand up to the belligerent actions and rhetoric coming from the US.”