KUN0029 4 GEN 0514 KUWAIT /KUNA-MSJ1 MIL-UK-SAS SAS unit moves to London in terror fight LONDON, Jan 22 (KUNA) -- A unit of the elite British forces known as the "SAS" is now for the first time permanently based in London on 24-hour standby for counter-terrorist operations, The Times newspaper revealed Monday. The basing of a unit from the regiment "in the metropolitan area" is intended to provide the police with a combat-proven ability to deal with armed terrorists in the British capital, the paper said. The small unit also includes surveillance specialists and bomb-disposal experts. Although the Metropolitan Police has its own substantial firearms capability, the fatal shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, the Brazilian electrician who was mistakenly identified as a terrorist bomber on the run, has underlined the need to have military expertise on tap, the daily added. Defence sources emphasized that a minister would have to make the decision to use the unit based in London. The Home Office would make a request to the Ministry of Defence (MoD), which was the usual procedure when the military was required to help in a police operation, the sources said. The SAS counter-terrorist unit in London is part of an expanded headquarters in the British capital for the regiment, which has been given extra resources and manpower to deal with the rising threat from international terrorism. More funding has been provided to ensure that the four squadrons of 22 SAS, the regular army special forces regiment, are fully manned. Its smaller counterpart in the Royal Marines, the Special Boat Service (SBS), has also been given more money and is now in the process of gaining a second squadron. Since the 1970s, the SAS has maintained a round-the-clock, counter-terrorist squadron based at Hereford, southern England, its main headquarters. It has been drafted in from Hereford on several occasions to assist in terrorist incidents, notably the Iranian Embassy siege in 1980 and the Balcombe Street siege, in central London, in 1975, when an Irish Republican Army (IRA) active service unit held a couple hostage in their flat. However, with the expansion of the special forces in the past two years, particularly after the July 7 suicide bombings on the London transport system in 2005, it was considered prudent to have an SAS counter-terrorist unit located full-time in the British capital. The MoD requested that the location of the unit be kept secret, the Times said. The Director Special Forces or a senior member of his staff attends "Cobra, " the Cabinet Office civil emergencies committee, whenever there is a suspected imminent terrorist attack or when an incident has taken place. The presence of a standby SAS team in London has coincided with moves by Britains domestic intelligence service known as "MI5" to expand its own workforce to meet the increasing terrorist threat. MI5 has set up a special headquarters on the outskirts of London for teams of surveillance experts to give them easier access to central and northern England.(end) he.rk KUNA 221433 Jan 07NNNN