BEEBWATCH

The secret forces who ensured success of attack (Michael Smith, 24/07/2003, Daily Telegraph)

Task Force 20, the special forces team that has been hunting down Saddam Hussein and his supporters, played a key role in the raid that ended in the deaths of the former dictator's sons.

Allied special forces are organised into Joint Special Operations Task Forces wherever they operate. JSOTF 20 includes members of Delta Force, the American equivalent of the SAS, Devgru, the US navy special forces team previously known as Seals, the SAS and the SBS.

It is not yet clear whether British personnel were involved in the raid that killed Uday and Qusay Hussein.

NHPR switches to the BBC after 10pm, so driving home last night I heard their report on the killing of the Saddam sons: "This was the best day of the war for American forces in Iraq...well, besides the fall of Baghdad." Hard to decide which is stranger, that the British news network doesn't acknowledge their country is our partner in the war or that to them liberating the people of Iraq from such thugs is nearly an afterthought? Posted by Orrin Judd at July 23, 2003 8:19 PM