A Special Air Service (SAS) soldier armed with just a Gurkha knife reportedly stabbed to death three Islamic State (Isis) jihadists who attempted to capture him in Fallujah. SAS soldiers are believed to be fighting Daesh (Isis) in Iraq and in Libya, advising counterparts and occasionally taking part in combat.

The SAS has been operating in Iraq for years, assassinating high-level jihadis and assisting forces fighting Isis. Earlier in June, an SAS sniper stopped two men from carrying out a car bomb attack with only one bullet, according to reports.

The Daily Star reported that a soldier was caught in a stand-off with the IS fighters with an Iraqi team after the jihadists ambushed a factory in the embattled Iraqi city. The newspaper says that they killed several Iraqi soldiers and seriously injured four.

The report say the soldier was pinned down by enemy gun-fire and quickly ran out of ammunition, leaving him with just the famous kukri knife held by the revered Gurkha soldiers. The 27-year-old had apparently been handed the knife by a British Gurkha soldier.

One SAS source told the Daily Star on Sunday: "As soon as his ammunition was expended, the IS gunmen tried to storm him. As they went to grab him he unsheathed his kukri and began slashing away.

"He decapitated the first gunman, slit the throat of second and killed another with a third blow. He then sliced away at three others. The IS gunmen fled in panic allowing the SAS soldier to carry the injured men to safety."

Fallujah
A member of the Iraqi security forces carries an Islamic State flag at Fallujah hospital Thaier Al-Sudani/Reuters

The report is the latest in a long line of under-sourced and unattributed reports of dramatic killings of IS militants by coalition forces fighting IS. Each of the reports cite unnamed sources and cannot be independently verified by IBTimes UK.

"He expected to be killed but thought he'd take as many of the enemy with him. When he was reunited with Iraqi troops they thought the he was seriously wounded because he was covered in blood but he explained that the blood wasn't his.

"He cleaned his knife, grabbed some more ammo and then led another Iraqi special forces team into battle," the source told the paper.

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The First Battalion of the Royal Gurkha Rifles demonstrate Khukuri fighting at the Sir John Moore barracks in Folkstone. Getty