A group of around 20 Special Air Force soldiers found themselves in trouble when they were left up against Taliban troops in the province of Kandahar, the MailOnline reports. The SAS were said to have been hundreds of miles away from other friendly forces in Afghanistan and issued a last-ditch SOS request to military bosses in Britain to extract them from Kandahar.

The Taliban takeover in the region ensured the extraction was made even more difficult.

British troops were unable to leave via the Kandahar airfield.

The airfield previously housed around 26,000 international troops but has since fallen into Taliban hands.

Instead, the SAS fended off the Taliban and sent their coordinates in coded messages to the special forces headquarters back in the UK.

The SAS soldiers were eventually rescued in an operation overseen by the Joint Special Forces Aviation Wing.

Members of the RAF’s 47 Squadron arrived to extract the SAS from the danger zone.

A source told MailOnline: “It was a very hush, hush mission.

“Kandahar had fallen to the Taliban on Friday and the guys were down there for five days after that.

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The “highly flexible” RAF jet came into service in 1999 but will no longer be used by the British military following the upcoming reorganisation of the Air Force.

On Thursday morning, the British aircraft was again spotted on flight trackers en route to the international military airbase in Dubai.