Top brass “clearly knew” detainees were being systematically murdered and did nothing, a former special forces officer has alleged
UK special forces in Afghanistan executed suspects without facing repercussions despite widespread knowledge of their behavior in the army chain of command, a former senior British officer has told a public inquiry.
The testimony transcript was one of four interviews released on Monday as part of a years-long investigation into the conduct of the UK special forces (UKSF), including the SAS, in Helmand province from 2010 to 2013.
The officer, who was formerly assistant chief of staff for operations in the UKSF HQ and was identified only as N1466, described serious allegations reported within the force. These included claims that officers had confessed to one unit’s policy “of killing fighting aged males on target regardless of threat,” he said.
The whisleblower added that raid reports often listed more Afghans killed than weapons recovered, and said that claims of detainees grabbing guns or grenades after capture did not seem credible.
“We are talking about war crimes… we are talking about taking detainees back on target and executing them… the pretense being that they conducted violence against the forces.”
According to N1466, more than one special forces director had known about the issue, and tried to “suppress” it. “Other directors… clearly knew there was a problem,” the officer claimed.
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The issue was brushed aside as inter-unit rivalry, which “just didn’t chime with the evidence,” he added.
“We didn’t join UKSF for this sort of behavior, you know, [for] toddlers to get shot in their beds or random killing. It’s not special, it’s not elite, it’s not what we stand for,” he said.
According to another officer questioned, Western-trained Afghan forces refused to deploy alongside the British unit in question on multiple occasions, which he described as “indicative of a problem, a real problem.”
A third officer said the emerging evidence was likely “just the tip of the iceberg,” arguing that the “very kinetic” and violent NATO and UK operations did nothing to win Afghan “hearts and minds.”
The UK deployed forces alongside the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, and withdrew along with other NATO troops in 2021.
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