Top brass \u201cclearly knew\u201d detainees were being systematically murdered and did nothing, a former special forces officer has alleged<\/p>\n
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.
\nThe 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.
\nThe 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\u2019s policy \u201cof killing fighting aged males on target regardless of threat,\u201d he said.
\nThe 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are talking about war crimes\u2026 we are talking about taking detainees back on target and executing them… the pretense being that they conducted violence against the forces.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to N1466, more than one special forces director had known about the issue, and tried to \u201csuppress\u201d it. \u201cOther directors… clearly knew there was a problem,\u201d the officer claimed.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: UK special forces had \u2018golden pass\u2019 to kill Afghan civilians \u2013 officer<\/p>\n
The issue was brushed aside as inter-unit rivalry, which \u201cjust didn\u2019t chime with the evidence,\u201d he added.
\n\u201cWe didn\u2019t join UKSF for this sort of behavior, you know, [for] toddlers to get shot in their beds or random killing. It\u2019s not special, it\u2019s not elite, it\u2019s not what we stand for,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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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 \u201cindicative of a problem, a real problem.\u201d
\nA third officer said the emerging evidence was likely \u201cjust the tip of the iceberg,\u201d arguing that the \u201cvery kinetic\u201d and violent NATO and UK operations did nothing to win Afghan \u201chearts and minds.\u201d
\nThe UK deployed forces alongside the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, and withdrew along with other NATO troops in 2021.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Top brass \u201cclearly knew\u201d 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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t