History Channel documentary reveals true story of the first Special Ops mission in 1991 Gulf War and that Israel threatened to use nuclear weapons on Iraq.

In a true story that could be taken from tomorrow’s headlines, Behind Iraqi Lines is the extraordinary dramatised account of the first Special Operations Forces mission in the 1991 Gulf War.

Speaking for the first time on US television in exclusive, detailed interviews filmed specifically for Behind Iraqi Lines, patrol commander Sergeant Andy McNab and Corporal Chris Ryan from Britain’s ultra elite SAS Regiment tell the story of a doomed mission in their own words. Together with six other soldiers they comprised the Bravo Two Zero patrol and entered Iraq on January 22 1991, weeks before the land war officially started.

Four days earlier, Saddam Hussein fired his weapons of mass destruction, the Scud missile, into Israel with consequences that potentially could not have been more serious. Retired USAF General Charles Horner, commander of all US and allied air operations in the Gulf War, says for the first time in Behind Iraqi Lines: "I believe that Israel threatened to use nuclear weapons in retaliation to a Scud attack, say that carried biological or chemical warheads. I think that is the true secret of why stopping them was so important."

With Israel threatening to act and airpower proven impotent, the SAS scrambled to hunt the Scud missiles hidden in the vast Iraqi deserts. The British Special Air Service or SAS (the equivalent and inspiration for Delta Force) paid a high price for their bravery. Some of the men were killed; others tried to escape by walking 200 miles across the Iraqi desert. A handful endured appalling torture at the hands of their captors. According to some reports, they left an estimated 200 Iraqi casualties in their wake.

It is a mission the British Government still refuses to confirm ever happened and controversy has surrounded it ever since. In the first objective and balanced account of the Bravo Two Zero patrol, Behind Iraqi Lines includes the shocking revelations of what blighted the mission. Why was this elite unit so ill equipped? Why did no one get a realistic weather report? Why, counter to all US military procedures and priorities, are the men abandoned? A rescue mission launched only after all but one of them they were either dead or captured. Behind Iraqi Lines corroborates McNab’s and Ryan’s story and includes supporting interviews with senior US Generals, like Wayne Downing who debriefed Ryan and led the Joint Special Operations Task Force that waged the war against the Scuds in the footsteps of Bravo Two Zero. Intelligence passed on by the pioneering SAS teams helped save many US lives as General Schwarzkopf recorded in a Letter of Commendation he issued to the SAS after the war. General Downing comments: "God Bless Bravo Two Zero. Had we put an American Bravo Two Zero in there before the Brits, we’d have had the same thing happen. The same thing."

Behind Iraqi Lines tells a story that is as relevant today as it was twelve years ago. US and allied Special Operations Forces are widely reported to be inside Iraq at the moment, pursuing exactly the same Scudbusting mission. No one knows how many Scud missiles Iraq still possesses, or if they are still capable of carrying biological and chemical warheads. Few can doubt Israel remains at the top of Saddam’s target list.

Combining the survivor’s first hand accounts with stunning dramatic reconstructions; Behind Iraqi Lines recounts one of the most extraordinary operations in modern military history. It is a story of personal courage and human endurance, betrayed by a lack of equipment, bad intelligence and poor planning. Essentially abandoned, the men are left to fend for themselves - deep behind Iraqi lines.

"I wish to officially commend the 22nd Special Air Service (SAS) Regiment for their totally outstanding performance of military operations during Operation Desert Storm…" "We put them deep into enemy territory… they let us know what was going on out there. They were our eyes." General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, C-in-C, 1991

Editor’s note: The SAS is the British equivalent of Delta Force. The success of the SAS in fighting terrorism since WWII actually inspired the creation and organisation of Delta Force, the United State Army’s most elite combat unit.

As commander, U.S. Central Command Air Forces, General Charles A. Horner commanded all U.S. and allied air operations in the Gulf War or Operation Desert Storm in 1990/91. He retired in 1994 as commander in chief of North American Aerospace Defense Command and the U.S. Space Command.

General Wayne A. Downing, retired from the US Army in 1996 as Commander in Chief, U.S. Special Operations Command. He served as Deputy National Security Advisor for Combating Terrorism, to President George W. Bush until mid 2002.

Behind Iraqi Lines is produced by Flashback Television as a two-hour special for The History Channel.