The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 7 plus 6 letter word SPECIAL FORCES
I've seen this crossword clue in The Daily Telegraph
S
P
E
C
I
A
L
F
O
R
C
E
S
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "secretive fighters" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case secretive fighters = special forces.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.