The SAS troops ( Special Air Service) joined US Forces on the mission in May this year. To keep their participation a secret, they wore US uniforms and carried American weapons.
The elite Special Air Service soldiers were flown into the country’s Deir ez-Zor governorate in a US Osprey aircraft before carrying out a daring reconnaissance mission near the compound of top ISIS financier Abu Sayyaf.
News of the British role in the mission, disclosed today for the first time, comes as The Mail on Sunday reports details of a plot, originating in Syria, to kill the Queen.
In response to this, the SAS has increased its operational tempo in the war-torn country to try to eliminate individuals who pose a direct threat to UK security.
On the mission to kill or capture Abu Sayyaf, the crack British troops dug themselves into the desert and camouflaged themselves as they mounted a painstaking watch of his lair using cameras and telescopic lenses.
Eventually, the SAS troops confirmed Sayyaf’s presence and provided US commanders at their Central Command in Qatar with a detailed tactical picture, including numbers of enemy fighters, their patterns of behaviour and weaponry.
The ISIS compound was then attacked in a series of strafing runs by US jets ahead of the arrival of more US aircraft carrying 50 heavily armed troops from Delta Force – the US’s equivalent of the SAS.
As these aircraft touched down, Black Hawk helicopters targeted ISIS positions with rockets and machine-gun fire. This onslaught did not quell their resistance, however, and the remaining terrorists fought hand-to-hand with US troops before being overwhelmed.
The US soldiers then searched the building and found documents, laptops and phones containing information about ISIS’s money-making schemes. Meanwhile, more SAS personnel joined their US counterparts to form a ‘ring of steel’, preventing any ISIS militants escaping alive. Fifteen ISIS fighters are believed to have been killed, including Sayyaf – who was shot dead by Delta Force.
No British or US troops were wounded. Sayyaf’s wife was also captured and a Yazidi slave girl was rescued. But when the US Defense Department released a statement on the raid, the vital role played by the SAS was ignored.
Last week, US security officials handed over Sayyaf’s wife to the Kurdish government of Northern Iraq and it was sources close to the Kurdish government who disclosed details of the SAS’s role in her capture.
The revelation follows controversy last month over RAF pilots carrying out bombing missions in Syria while embedded with Allied air forces. That row included accusations that David Cameron was withholding vital information from Parliament – because, to date, MPs have voted in favour of military action in Iraq but not Syria.
In July, two months after the Sayyaf raid, the Prime Minister announced he had given British Special Forces ‘carte blanche’ to launch raids inside ISIS-held territory.
But the move has yet to be approved by MPs. They are expected to vote on UK military operations in Syria when Parliament sits this autumn.
Political sources say that Mr Cameron is waiting for the Labour Party to elect its new leader next month before announcing a Commons vote on military operations in Syria.