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A confidential briefing given to US congressional leaders by the king of Jordan revealed that British Special Air Service (SAS) forces have been deployed in Libya since the beginning of the year, reported on Friday.

The leaked memo indicates that King Abdullah met with US congressional leaders in January and briefed them about plans for Jordan's special forces to operate in the country alongside SAS, the British Army's most renowned special forces unit.

The US lawmakers included John McCain, the chairman of the Senate armed services committee, and Bob Corker, the chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee. Also present was the House of Representatives speaker, Paul Ryan.

King Abdullah said UK special forces needed his soldiers' assistance when operating on the ground in north Africa, explaining "Jordanian slang is similar to Libyan slang".

The King also highlighted that British forces had helped in building up a mechanised battalion in southern Syria, headed by a local commander and made up of tribal fighters, to combat Bashar al-Assad's army.

"The problem is bigger than the [Islamic State], this is a third world war, this is Christians, Jews working with Muslims against outlaws," the King told the lawmakers at the meeting, according to The Guardian.

In addition, the memo indicates that King Abdullah said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan "believes in a radical Islamic solution to the problems in the region" and the "fact that terrorists are going to Europe is part of Turkish policy, and Turkey keeps getting a slap on the hand, but they get off the hook".

The king also raised particular concerns over al-Shabaab, the Islamist militant group in Somalia that has links with both IS and al-Qaeda.

"Jordan is looking at al-Shabaab because no one was really looking at the issue, and we cannot separate this issue, and the need to look at all the hotspots in the map," he said.

"We have a rapid deployment force that will stand with the British and Kenya and is ready to go over the border [into Somalia]."

Five years of fighting in Syria have had a dramatic impact on Jordan, which has absorbed more than 630,000 Syrian refugees, and the King has repeatedly called for decisive action to end the conflict.