re: British SBS special forces kill ISIS fighters with bare hands, rocks, knives

quote:

---

So 3 essentially unarmed guys charged 30 guys who had guns and they killed 12 of them and none of the 3 were killed?

---

No, the story is believable, although amazing. You misread the numbers of the force, it wasn't a 3 man team.

From wikipedia, to establish team size

quote:

---

In 1987, when renamed the Special Boat Service, the SBS was also reformed along SAS lines, with 16 man troops instead of the traditional sections

---

From the article

quote:

---

Miraculously, everyone of the Brits survived despite all of the proud men sustaining injuries

---

so assuming a full team, that's a 16 man group still intact.

quote:

---

All but two of them returned to combat within a matter of days following the incredible incident.

---

This also definitely indicates a number larger than 3, as it would be easier and more normal to just say "one man"

So a 16 man special forces group is attacked by 50 fighters, kills 20 with guns, then rushes the survivors while shooting their remaining ammo

quote:

---

They ran towards the depraved militants while firing off their remaining bullets

---

possibly hitting some more, and creating chaos.

That gives you a 1 vs 2 ratio, 2 ISIS dudes vs a Brit elite special forces guy who doesn't intend to be taken alive at any cost.

Speaking from the perspective of NOT being special forces, I'd want NO PART of being on the opposing side. You could give me 30 MMA fighters and hand them AKs, and I would not like their chances against, say, 16 SBS, SEAL, Spetsnaz etc guys whose goal is to kill or be killed, no surrender. And I'm pretty comfortable that the ISIS guys don't all match up to be MMA fighters, probably just a lot of regular dudes.

edited to add: the fact that the SBS team shot about 40% of the ISIS fighters (20 of 50), indicates this was not a very organized group, to begin with. So they weren't highly trained or prepared.