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SAS fights move to name its Afghanistan heroes By David Graves (Filed: 28/01/2002) A DISPUTE has developed between the Government and the SAS over the award of gallantry medals to soldiers who fought in Afghanistan, and whether the recipients should be publicly identified. Senior members of the Government, including Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, are said to want the names of the decorated SAS men to be made public, along with detailed citations. However, the SAS, which attempts to maintain a blanket of secrecy over its activities, says any publicity will compromise the identity of its members. Sources close to the regiment said it would be "hypocritical" to insist on the decorations being published as the MoD had been involved in expensive legal actions to try to prevent the publication of memoirs by former members of the regiment. Government advisers are said to have argued that the public would "feel good" about Britain's military involvement in Afghanistan if they knew what the SAS had achieved. Traditionally, members of the SAS who receive military honours are identified in Army lists by their name, their original regiment and where the decoration was won. Citations are rarely published, except in the case of a posthumous award, to avoid giving details of SAS activities. The problem for the SAS is that, because it was the only British regiment to fight in Afghanistan, any military award for gallantry in the country would be automatically linked to it. Ironically, some SAS officers have been lobbying for two of their men, both NCOs, to be awarded the Victoria Cross for their heroism during a battle against al-Qa'eda fighters at a training camp near Kandahar last month. The regiment has only received one VC since it was formed by Sir David Stirling during World War Two - a posthumous award to Maj Anders Lassen for a raid on German positions at Lake Comacchio, Italy, in April 1945. So far, no decision has been made about what decorations should be awarded to the SAS for its involvement in Afghanistan, although senior MoD officials said it was "unlikely" that any VCs would be given. Although the MoD has not publicised the SAS role in Afghanistan, the regiment was involved in two major battles. During the attack on the al-Qa'eda training camp, which involved about 100 men, one of the NCOs nominated for a VC drove on his men and was involved in close-quarters gun battles. The other nominated NCO was involved in intense hand-to-hand combat using knives. Despite the SAS being outnumbered at Kandahar by almost two to one, they killed 27 al-Qa'eda and Taliban fighters, wounded about 30 and captured another 30. One of the NCOs, who has already been decorated for service in Ulster, Bosnia and the Gulf, was wounded in the calf and later flown back to Britain. During the second major action of the campaign, in the Tora Bora complex of the White Mountains in the second week of December, scores of al-Qa'eda fighters were killed in desperate fighting. Senior defence sources said there was no question of the Army being forced to bow to any demands that SAS soldiers should be named. "If you are talking about putting people forward for VCs, there is bound to be a lot pressure to give details in the citations but we would say only as much as we can. Quite apart from anything else, there are still quite a few of the guys still out there. "We do not identify members of the special forces or give away their operational techniques. We are not going to compromise that, no matter what No 10 or anyone else might say."