London: Commandos in Britain’s elite Special Air Service (SAS) corps killed at the least fifty four Afghans in suspicious occasions however the navy chain of command hid worries, a BBC research stated Tuesday.
Unarmed Afghan guys had been robotically shot useless “in bloodless blood” with the aid of using SAS troops for the duration of night time-time raids for the duration of the lengthy battle, and guns had been planted on them to justify the crimes, the four-12 months probe determined.
Senior officials together with General Mark Carleton-Smith, who headed UK Special Forces on the time, had been privy to worries in the SAS approximately the operations however did not record them to navy police, it stated.
Under UK regulation governing the militia, it’s miles a crook offence for a commanding officer to fail to tell the navy police in the event that they come to be privy to capability battle crimes, the BBC noted.
Carleton-Smith, who retired final month as head of the British navy overall, declined to remark to the BBC programme “Panorama”, which stated its research changed into primarily based totally on courtroom docket documents, leaked emails and its personal journalists’ journey to webweb sites of the operations in Afghanistan.
The ministry of defence stated earlier investigations into the behavior of UK forces in Afghanistan determined inadequate proof to deliver charges.
“No new proof has been presented, however the carrier police will don’t forget any allegations have to new proof come to light,” it stated in a assertion to the BBC.
“The UK militia served with braveness and professionalism in Afghanistan and we can usually maintain them to the very best standards.”
Police ‘obstructed’
The Panorama research, airing in complete later Tuesday, diagnosed fifty four humans shot useless in suspicious occasions with the aid of using one SAS unit for the duration of one six-month excursion of Helmand province from November 2010 to May 2011.
After-motion reviews confirmed different officials had been amazed on the excessive casualty charge being inflicted with the aid of using the unit, whilst not one of the SAS troops mentioned accidents in obvious firefights with Taliban militants.
“Too many humans had been being killed on night time raids and the reasons did not make sense. Once anyone is detained, they should not come to be useless,” one senior officer at unique forces headquarters instructed Panorama.
“For it to show up again and again once more changed into inflicting alarm at HQ. It changed into clean on the time that some thing changed into wrong.”
There changed into specific problem that SAS bullet holes determined on the scene of Afghan residential compounds after the raids had been all low down — indicating that suspects had been kneeling or susceptible at the ground.
Several warnings had been relayed up the chain of command, the BBC stated. But the SAS squadron changed into allowed to complete its six-month excursion — and changed into deployed for any other in 2012.
In 2014, the Royal Military Police released an research into extra than six hundred alleged offences with the aid of using British forces in Afghanistan, together with some of killings with the aid of using the SAS squadron.
But RMP investigators instructed the BBC that they had been “obstructed” with the aid of using the British navy, and the research resulted in 2019.
Colonel Oliver Lee, who changed into commander of the Royal Marines in Afghanistan in 2011, instructed the programme that the allegations had been “exceptionally shocking” and merited a complete public inquiry.
