Guerrillas in the Jungle

Ultimate soldier. Ultimate mission. But can the SAS survive working deep undercover among the terrorists of Northern Ireland? It is the 1970s, and a mean and dirty war is being waged on British soil. Sectarian violence is an almost daily occurrence, and the terrorist groups, who finance their operations through robbery, fraud and extortion, engage in torture, assassination and wholesale slaughter.

South Armagh, 1989: cheering mobs stand over the body of a British soldier. He is the ninth to have been killed by the so-called Border Fox, an IRA sniper whose activities have helped make this area of the United Kingdom the most feared killing ground in Western Europe. The British government is determined to break the tightly knit South Armagh Brigade of the IRA before more lives are lost.

Ultimate soldier. Ultimate mission. But can the SAS face the might of Rommel's army and win? In the North African desert in 1941, the war is being won by the brilliant German commander General Rommel, and the British are in retreat on all fronts. A young British army lieutenant, David Stirling, believes that the only way to reverse this situation is to attack the enemy behind their own lines, using small groups of men who can insert by land, sea or air as required.

Ultimate soldier. Ultimate mission. But can the SAS assault team rescue the hostages from the terrorist-held Iranian embassy? Thirtieth April 1980: six well-armed terrorists seize the Iranian embassy in London. Nineteen Iranian nationals and four British citizens are captured. Subsequent negotiations see some hostages released, but when, on the fifth day of the siege, one of the hostages is shot dead, his body dumped outside, the time for negotiation is over.

Ultimate soldier. Ultimate mission. But will the SAS survive the inferno of Operation Desert Storm? August 1990, and Iraqi tanks are rolling into Kuwait, putting one-quarter of the world's oil reserves at risk. So begins Operation Desert Storm. As specialists in desert warfare, the legendary SAS are plunged into a maelstrom of covert operations, often deep inside enemy territory. Their mission: reconnaissance, espionage, sabotage, the capture of prisoners and the rescue of hostages.

Ultimate soldier. Ultimate mission. But will the SAS survive a nightmare journey into the tunnel lair of the Viet Cong? June 1966: 3 Squadron SAS (Australian Special Air Service) set up a forward operating base in Vietnam's Phuoc Tuy province, a swampy hell of jungle and paddy fields 45 miles east of Saigon, in the heart of enemy territory. The Viet Cong have bases throughout the jungle, and the Australians soon find themselves under constant attack.

Ultimate soldier. Ultimate mission. But will the SAS succeed in freeing Oman from the deadly grip of fanatical guerrillas? In the arid deserts and mountains of Arabia, a 'secret' war is being fought. While Communist-backed Adoo guerrillas have been waging a campaign of terror against Oman, British army training teams have been winning hearts and minds with medical aid and educational programmes.

Ultimate soldier. Ultimate mission. But will the SAS be able to rid Yemen of its unstoppable guerrillas? Aden, 1964, and the British are waging two different kinds of war. Inhabitants of Northern Yemen's forbidding mountainous region of Radfan are conducting guerrilla attacks against the British. Armed by the Egyptians and trained by the communist Yemenis, they seem an invincible fighting force.

Ultimate soldier. Ultimate mission. But can the SAS distract the Nazis to allow airborne landings to go ahead? September 1944: in the wake of the successful Anvil landings, the Allies plan airborne landings in the Orléans Gap. To soften the enemy beforehand, they decide to drop a squadron of men and jeeps in Central France, to hit enemy positions and distract attention from the landings taking place elsewhere.

Ultimate soldier. Ultimate mission. But can the SAS recruit primitive natives to help them thwart an invading rebel force? In inhospitable, perilous terrain, braving jungle and swamp, the SAS are dispatched to live with primitive headhunting natives to try to win hearts and minds with medical aid and assistance, in the hope of recruiting them as Border Scout paramilitaries.

John Porter, hero of the original Strikeback novel and TV series, returns in an exciting adventure when old enemies attack the SAS. It's 1999. A bitterly cold morning in the Brecon Beacons, and the soldiers trying out for SAS Selection are preparing to face their toughest test yet. Overseeing the soldiers is John Porter: once a promising young Blade, now a broken man and a drunk, seeing out his days in the Regiment Training Wing. But before the Fan Dance can begin, six masked gunmen carry out a devastating attack.

July 1981: while Gambian President Jawara attends a royal wedding in London, Marxist rebels seize power. Fearing armed intervention from neighbouring Senegal, they take hostages - including one of the president's wives and several of his children - and empty the prisons in a desperate search for allies in the coming struggle. As opposing factions of the police force wrestle for control, prisoners settle old scores, slaughtering almost 2,000 Gambians. In tourist beach hotels, hundreds of Europeans fear the worst.

Ultimate soldier. Ultimate mission. But can the SAS prevent the launch of Exocet missiles at the British Task Force? May 1982: as the British Task Force prepares to retake the Falkland Islands, a lone Sea King helicopter makes an apparently forced landing in the southernmost reaches of Chile. The only threat to the Task Force - and the enemy's only hope of ultimate victory - is Argentina's Super Etendard aircraft and their sea-skimming Exocet missiles.

Early 1944, and with the tide of the war flowing steadily against the Germans, the SAS - born in North Africa as a strategic raiding force behind enemy lines - is performing a similar role in the Italian mountains and French forests. Here, after making common cause with local partisans, they are cutting rail and road links serving the frontline German armies. Hitler knows as much and is determined that the SAS will pay a terrible price for their efforts.

It's 1996. A terminally ill father desperately seeks answers to what happened to his son, missing for 20 years. He has the names of two Argentine men - one in Mexico City, the other imprisoned on the Colombian island of Providencia - but no one to ask the questions. A missing girl's family have given her up for dead when they stumble upon a Miami newspaper story mentioning two of her friends. One has just died; the other, half deranged, tells a garbled story of sexual slavery on a Caribbean island which sounds suspiciously like Providencia.