Revealed: clandestine actions of mercenaries during Thatcher years
Keenie Meenie Services was active from Sri Lanka to Nicaragua – and Foreign Office could not rein it in, book claims
A British mercenary company established by former SAS veterans conducted clandestine and highly controversial operations around the world, with successive British governments either unwilling or unable to rein it in, a new book reveals.
Keenie Meenie Services (KMS) was one of Britain’s first mercenary companies, believed to have taken its name from Arabic slang for “undercover”. It was set up in the 1970s and recruited veterans battle-hardened by the Troubles in Northern Ireland, Operation Storm in Oman – when Anglo Omani forces quashed an uprising – and the 1980 siege of London’s Iranian embassy.