The Special Air Service (SAS) is a special forces unit of the British Army. The SAS was founded in 1941 as a regiment, and later reconstituted as a corps in 1950. The unit undertakes a number of roles including covert reconnaissance, counter-terrorism, direct action and hostage rescue. The corps presently comprises 22 Special Air Service Regiment, the regular component under the operational command of United Kingdom Special Forces, and 21 (Artists) Special Air Service Regiment (Reserve)and 23 Special Air Service Regiment (Reserve), which are reserve units under the operational command of 1st Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Brigade. The Special Air Service traces its origins to 1941 and the Second World War and was reformed as part of the Territorial Army in 1947, named the 21st Special Air Service Regiment (Artists Rifles). The 22nd Special Air Service Regiment, part of the regular army and later gained fame and recognition worldwide after successfully assaulting the Iranian Embassy in London and rescuing hostages during the 1980 Iranian Embassy siege, which lifted the regiment from obscurity outside the military establishment

Camp Bastion, a sprawling, well-fortified British-run base in the desert in southern Afghanistan, is the size of the UK town of Reading and home to almost 30,000 people. Bastion - with its own water bottling plant, hospital, police force and even Pizza Hut - is widely regarded as a safe haven for troops. However, a Taliban attack breaching the perimeter and resulting in the death of two US Marines has shown it is not impregnable.

Camp Bastion is a Ministry of Defense airbase located northwest of the city of Lashkar Gah in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. The base has barracks for the Afghan National Army. Between 2005 and October 2014 it was the logistics hub for International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) operations in Helmand during the War in Afghanistan and Operation Herrick, it was capable of accommodating over 32,000 people. The camp was built by the British Army and was the largest British overseas military camp built since the Second World War. The base was also home to troops from a number of nations including the United States of America and Tonga. Bastion contains Afghan National Army (ANA) Camp Shorabak, and held Camp Leatherneck until 2014. In November 2006, the then British Prime Minister Tony Blair visited Camp Bastion, and, while addressing a gathering of British troops, described it as an "extraordinary piece of desert ... where the fate of world security in the early 21st century is going to be decided".

Camp Bastion, which was the biggest ever British army base, has been left destroyed amid fears the Taliban could soon overrun it. Taliban forces have been moving closer towards the base in recent weeks and are now in control over half of the Helmand province. The army-base-turned-ghost-town was given to the Afghan government forces as a barracks for troops in October 2014. Prior to this, more than 10,000 brave soldiers once called the camp home during the 13 years the British spent fighting the Taliban in the area. Camp Bastion cost £50m to fully build in 2006 and a further £300m to wipe it clean of British assets eight years later. The total cost to British taxpayers of setting up and running the camp was £20billion. The footage filmed by the BBC last week revealed a derelict, empty camp. The deserted camp still features rolls of barbed wire, concrete walls, radar towers and aircraft hangars - all empty and in collapse. The Ministry of Defence said in response to the new footage: "The UK has a long-term commitment to build a more secure, stable and prosperous Afghanistan. "Though our combat mission ended in 2014, the UK continues to support the Government of Afghanistan through NATO’s train, advise and assist mission, Resolute Support. "The UK also provides substantial political, financial and development support." Michael Fallon, the Defence Secretary, said at the time of Camp Bastion's closure two years ago that there was “no guarantee” Afghanistan would be “stable and safe” following the departure of western fighting forces. The former Prime Minister, David Cameron called the drawdown "mission accomplished". But, just weeks after the British left, the Taliban launched a powerful assault on the base. In a shocking indictment of security following the British hand-over, the United States confirmed that they have been forced to use 90 ‘Special Operations’ soldiers to defend the site. They now occupy a tiny corner of Camp Bastion - the rest remains a ghost town. A British security source who visited Helmand even told The Mail on Sunday that the Afghan Army was paying the Taliban thousands of US dollars not to attack them. Intelligence reports have since suggested that the Taliban may be planning to invade Camp Bastion as a symbolic move intended to secure publicity across the world. Colonel Richard Kemp, who led British troops in Afghanistan, said: "Camp Bastion is also a likely objective for the Taliban, if only symbolically, as a demonstration of their capability. Joe Glenton, a former soldier with the Royal Logistic Corps in Afghanistan, said the decision to re-invade Afghanistan had "re-energised the Taliban" and operations from Camp Bastion and similar bases "destabilised the entire region". He told the Independent: "The presence of troops acted as a lighting rod for local resistance. "The decision to re-invade reenergised the Taliban and pulled in non-Taliban local fighters at the costs of thousands of British and Afghan dead and wounded. "We should have left earlier or, better, have never committed thousands of troops into a region we did not understand, with no plan, on behalf of the corrupt Karzai puppet regime." 454 British soldiers lost their lives in Helmand province during the campaign against the Taliban from 2006 to 2014. (By OLI SMITH).

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