Doug, Greg and Troll, all that is necessary is to cast our minds back to the siege of the Iranian Embassy in London in 1981 for a textbook example of how to conduct such an operation.

The SAS put themselves at huge risk during this operation, because the rescue of the hostages was the prime objective, not the safety of the soldiers nor the death of the terrorists. So, I would hazard a guess tht yes, it is official Army policy.

Seems to me that the Russians had slightly different priorities.

I do however take Troll's point about "playing possum".

Murray