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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Sam Kiley

Decoys, surveillance, ambush: Inside the secretive SAS operation in Northern Ireland | SAS: The Shadow War

For decades, the SAS has operated beyond public view, its missions shaped by secrecy and its reputation burnished by the rare moments when that secrecy has fallen away.

In SAS: The Shadow War, The Independent’s international affairs editor Sam Kiley traces the regiment’s covert campaign against the IRA in Northern Ireland, from the surveillance operations and ambushes of the Troubles to the hard questions that still endure today. Along the way, the Iranian Embassy siege and a deadly operation in Gibraltar reveal how the SAS became both a celebrated and a contested force.

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