[jeltz25]

From the article:

But a defence insider who has discussed the issue with officials at the highest levels in the Ministry of Defence said: “They are worried that if they do more on the Iranian border there will be nasty incidents for us at the fag end of a campaign and that we could get sucked into a long-lasting conflict with Iran.”

Can anyone imagine the outcry if the NYT printed a story with some top Pentagon official referring to “the fag end” of an operation?

That expression jumped out at me

[familyop]

"there will be nasty incidents for us at the fag end of a campaign"

...good catch! So they admit that's their end of the campaign?

[MPJackal]

“at the fag end of a campaign and that we could get sucked into”

Fag and sucked, too funny.

[Tut]

I’m not sure of the use of “the fag end” here. The Brits calls cigarettes “fags”. What we call fags they call poofs.

In any event, it is an odd thing to say.