UK SAS behind 'summary killings' of 80 Afghan civilians, inquiry says

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: News websites
3 Jul 2023 10:02

Attorneys for 80 grieving families shed light on disturbing evidence of SAS war crimes in Afghanistan.

British troops in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan (AP)

Three different British SAS units operating in Afghanistan between 2010 and 2013 may have carried out 80 summary executions, according to attorneys for the grieving families who testified before a public investigation.

On a single six-month tour of duty, one of the elite troops is thought to have "personally killed" 35 Afghans as part of a policy to kill "all fighting-age males" in homes that were invaded, "regardless of the threat they posed."

When Afghans were cut off from their extended family by SAS forces, they were frequently shot dead after allegedly producing weapons, however, in five instances, the number of people shot dead exceeded the number of weapons found.

The most recent accusations are included in a document submitted to a new public investigation looking into allegations that SAS members committed war crimes in Afghanistan based on past Ministry of Defense court confessions, which was filed by the legal firm Leigh Day.

'A causal disregard for life'

The document draws attention to worries expressed in emails sent at the time by top army commanders, who warned that "there appears to be a casual disregard for life." However, a 2011 internal assessment did not result in a modification of the killing pattern.

The attorneys kept track of 25 suspicious killings between June 2011 and May 2013, and one of those deaths, according to the lawyers' records, "resulted in the deaths of 4/5 Afghans" despite just one grenade being discovered following a SAS raid. Two Afghan youngsters "had to be urgently evacuated for medical treatment" due to the brutal incursion.

In the later phases of the UK's brutal, protracted military operation in Helmand province, which concluded in 2014, elite British SAS forces frequently stormed family compounds allegedly in "pursuit of Taliban fighters."

Following mounting pressure from a number of investigative stories and legal lawsuits accusing elite British troops of frequently killing Afghans in cold blood, governments announced the launch of a statutory inquiry in December. The inquiry will be chaired by appeal court judge Lord Justice Haddon-Cave.

Previously, it was believed that 54 Afghans were killed by a single SAS unit, but now, according to the lawyers, the allegations "reveal credible evidence of a widespread and systematic pattern of unlawful extrajudicial killings" that involve more British troops and a longer time period than previously thought.

Operation Northmoor, an inquiry into claims of more than 600 offenses committed by British personnel in Afghanistan, including the killing of civilians by the SAS, was started by military police in 2014. Ministers wounded it down in 2017 and shuttered it in 2019, and according to the MoD, no evidence of criminality was found.

The attorneys claim that top police, officials, and a number of probes participated in "a wide-ranging, multilayered, years-long cover-up" in the years that followed. The leadership of the UK's special forces received a directive from military police at one time not to remove any information stored on their system.

Despite it all, “in direct defiance of that order," staff at the special forces headquarters “permanently deleted an unknown quantity of data."

Haddon-Cave will make a decision on Wednesday and Thursday over a request by the MoD to hold significant portions of the hearings in secret, without the presence of the press or the public. Full hearings are scheduled to begin in the autumn.

Although it has been the subject of several documentaries, reports, court hearings, and an order giving anonymity to all UK military services personnel, the MoD wants any evidence that "tends to confirm or deny the alleged involvement" of the SAS itself in Afghanistan to be heard in secret.

Because of the nature of the charges, the bereaved families' attorneys contend that the public inquiry should "limit the extent" of covert sessions "as far as is possible."

It is worth noting that British special forces, including the Special Air Service (SAS), have operated in at least 19 different countries over the last 12 years, a report by Action on Armed Violence has recently revealed.

The United States and its various Western allies, including the United Kingdom, are behind many war crimes in Afghanistan, which they committed as part of their 20-year-long occupation of the country.

The United States even went out of its way to commit a war crime against Afghan civilians following its incredibly chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, which saw hundreds upon hundreds flocking toward the airport, stampedes, and abandoned allies. There even was a scene that reminded the world of the American withdrawal from Vietnam's Saigon, during which they air-lifted their staff from the embassy's roof.

Despite killing tens of thousands of civilians during their occupation, US soldiers opened fire on the crowd outside the Hamid Karzai International Airport, killing several civilians, including women and children.

The United Kingdom helped Washington do its bidding in Afghanistan, and British troops are just as complicit in all the crimes and the chaotic withdrawal as their American counterparts.