A 16-man unit of the SAS, acting on intelligence obtained by an Iraqi agent working for the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), shot dead the would-be bombers in a combined SAS and American operation in July this year.
Details of the mission codenamed Operation Marlborough have remained secret until now - primarily because it was launched in the same week that a Metropolitan Police firearms unit in London shot dead Jean Charles de Menezes, a 27-year-old Brazilian electrician, in the mistaken belief that he was a suicide bomber.
It marked one of the most successful counter-insurgency operations undertaken by British forces since the start of the Iraq conflict. It is the first time it has become clear that the SAS is working with American special forces on a permanent basis in Iraq. The troops were part of Task Force Black, the coalition's special forces unit based in Baghdad. It is composed of a squadron of SAS troopers and members of the Delta Force - the clandestine American army special forces unit - plus other elements of British and American forces. It acts on intelligence gathered by a network of Iraqi spies working for the CIA and MI6.
The unit only undertakes "black", or covert, operations and is one of the few coalition units in Iraq with the specific task of launching attacks against suicide bombers.