Status: 07/12/2022 2:16 p.m
Research by the BBC indicates possible war crimes during the Afghanistan mission. Accordingly, British special forces are said to have shot unarmed people during night raids.
According to a BBC report, a British special forces unit may have been systematically killing unarmed people in Afghanistan. Mission reports indicate that the SAS (Special Air Service) unit unlawfully shot dead at least 54 people over a six-month period in 2010 and 2011 in southern Afghanistan’s Helmand province.
Shot “in cold blood” at night
The killings are said to have taken place as part of so-called “kill or capture raids”. These are nightly raids on people suspected of being Taliban commanders or bomb makers. The unarmed men were regularly shot “in cold blood” during these nightly raids, the BBC program “Panorama” reported, citing four years of research. Weapons were foisted on the shot Afghans to justify the killings, it said.
The reason for the assumption was a pattern of “strikingly similar reports” about Afghan men who, after being captured, are said to have tried to pull weapons or grenades out from behind curtains or furniture and were then allegedly shot in self-defense, the report said.
Has an investigation been obstructed?
The BBC report is based on court documents, leaked emails and own research on the ground. High-ranking British officers illegally failed to pass on reports and warnings to the military police about the actions of a particular unit.
A full-scale investigation into killings in Afghanistan by British military personnel was closed in 2019 without finding any criminal conduct. However, the BBC, citing unnamed military police sources, reported that the investigation was said to have been obstructed by the armed forces.
“Investigate any allegations”
A spokesman for the British Ministry of Defense declined to comment on the details when asked by the BBC. He said previous inquiries into the behavior of British troops in Afghanistan had not found sufficient evidence to bring charges.
British troops in Afghanistan served with “courage and professionalism”. He added: “No new evidence has been presented, but the military police will investigate any allegations should new evidence come to light.”