AhlulBayt News Agency: A senior former British officer has disclosed that UK Special Forces units carried out unlawful executions in Afghanistan between 2010 and 2013, and commanders were fully aware but took no action.
The former officer (identified only as N1466) told the ongoing UK inquiry into Afghanistan that the Special Air Service (SAS) almost certainly committed war crimes in Helmand province during 2010–2013.
He stated that SAS troops executed detainees and civilians, and senior commanders — including the then-director of UK Special Forces — knew about these killings but covered them up with mere “tactical reviews” instead of referring the cases to military police.
The officer, who at the time served as assistant chief of staff for UK Special Forces operations, expressed deep regret:
“The number of people killed during night raids bore no relation to the weapons recovered. I did not report it — the biggest mistake of my life.”
He stressed that such conduct may have been “widespread” across British special forces units and included the killing of unarmed individuals after they had been detained.
These revelations come three years after a controversial BBC Panorama documentary documented the suspicious killing of at least 54 people in a six-month period by one SAS squadron — a case that was quietly dropped without any judicial investigation.
The UK Ministry of Defence has now promised to launch a fresh inquiry and cooperate fully. Afghan victims’ families and human rights organisations are demanding immediate referral of the cases to the International Criminal Court.
The scandal casts a dark shadow over Britain’s 457 military deaths in Afghanistan and is regarded as one of the most shameful stains on the country’s modern military history.
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