SAS squadrons conducted night raids in Afghanistan, aiming to locate Taliban targets
By Doug Faulkner & Hannah O’Grady
BBC News
Senior UK special forces officers had suspicions of a “deliberate policy” of murder by the SAS in Afghanistan but hid evidence, an inquiry heard.
In some cases they did nothing and in others “sought to prevent adequate investigation”, a lawyer for families of those killed said.
Internal emails show “incredulity” at official reports of SAS night raids in which Afghans were killed, he said.
Concerns of SAS wrongdoing were widely known at the top of government.
A government lawyer previously said UK armed forces hold themselves to the highest standards.
On the third day of the independent inquiry, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) was accused of misleading the High Court. The inquiry also heard that a senior lawyer told the second in command of UK special forces that the way reports of the incidents were being written up would “not bear scrutiny in years to come”.
The probe was launched following a BBC Panorama investigation, which revealed that a SAS squadron killed 54 people in suspicious circumstances on one six-month tour.
It heard that the morning after one raid on 9 February 2011, in which eight people were killed, one special forces officer wrote to a colleague: “Whilst murder and the [SAS] have oft been regular bed-fellows, this is beginning to look bone!”
His colleague replied: “I find it depressing that is has come to this… Ultimately a massive failure of leadership… and when the next Wikileaks occurs then we will be dragged down with them.”
The inquiry is seeking to establish if UK special forces carried out executions during operations in Afghanistan between 2010 and 2013, as well as examining the alleged cover-up of illegal activity and inadequate investigations by the military police.
On Wednesday, Richard Hermer KC, who is representing seven families whose relatives were killed by members of UK Special Forces, said his submission was based almost entirely on the military’s own documents – which he described as “revealing and shocking”.
Documents from inside special forces and military police investigations contained “extensive contemporaneous evidence of apparent attempts to cover up that wrongdoing, ranging from the destruction of evidence and the coaching of witnesses to the turning of blind eyes and the credulous acceptance by those responsible for military discipline of implausible and often wholly incredible accounts of events”, he said in his opening statement at the Royal Courts of Justice.
According to Mr Hermer, the documents indicated that successive directors of special forces – Lieutenant General Jonathan “Jacko” Page and General Sir Mark Carleton-Smith – had knowledge of serious suspected wrongdoing by the SAS, but failed to ensure this was passed to the Royal Military Police (RMP) and “failed to take any steps to investigate that wrongdoing and prevent its recurrence”.
Documents show one senior special forces officer’s surprise at the response of special forces headquarters when they were asked questions about an operation that resulted in the fatal shooting of a young mother and father and the serious wounding of their two infant sons, which was “defensive in posture”.
After another incident, in May 2011 the most senior lawyer in special forces headquarters wrote “if this particular complaint gets elevated to a higher level than we will lose control of it – and our political masters could knee-jerk and apply pressure for a SIB [military police] investigation”.
Serious suspicions of extrajudicial killings were widely known at the highest levels of government, Mr Hermer said, including at the top of the MoD and in No 10.
In 2016, an email discussing an investigation by the RMP reached Simon Case, then the director general of the prime minister’s office, as well as the cabinet secretary and attorney general, the inquiry was told.
It outlined how the information came from “highly credible armed forces sources” and the military police were “now investigating a number of cases of suspected murders”.
The same year, the MoD’s permanent secretary, Stephen Lovegrove, told the head of the military police he was “troubled by a culture in” the UK special forces and suggested there was a widespread view among government officials that it needed to “have its wings clipped”.
This email refers to a “B”, which is a military term for an adult male and an “A”, which refers to the building they targeted. “AK” refers to an AK-47, which is a type of assault rifle
Mr Hermer said internal special forces emails from 2011 “show officers questioning accounts of ‘life threatening’ movement by people without weapons'” and noting that instances of unarmed Afghans being killed were higher than normal.
Throughout that year he said there were emails written by members of special forces expressing “incredulity” about the official account of SAS night raids in which Afghan people were killed.
Mr Hermer quoted phrases from them including:
- “quite incredible…we don’t believe this”
- “latest massacre!”
- “appear to be beyond reproach”
- “You couldn’t MAKE IT UP!”
- “the way we are writing these up will not bear scrutiny in years to come”.
The MoD was also accused of misleading the High Court over SAS killings.
Emails released as part of the inquiry revealed the head of the MoD’s legal department discussed the “highly questionable, if not actually implausible” justifications the SAS had given for killing dozens of people in southern Afghanistan, including children.
During a court hearing into the fatal shooting of four people during an arrest raid in Helmand in 2011, the MoD’s legal team argued claims UK special forces may have breached the laws of war and covered that up were baseless.
The inquiry heard the MoD accepted it had seriously misled the bereaved family and the High Court, but denied this was intentional.
Mr Hermer said “that explanation does not withstand scrutiny” and added the evidence suggested an attempt “to cover up the cover up”.
‘Not above the law’
On Tuesday, the inquiry heard that new Defence Secretary Grant Shapps had reiterated his “strong support” for the inquiry.
Brian Altman KC, for the MoD, said: “Operations must be conducted within the clear boundaries of the law and credible allegations against our forces must always be investigated thoroughly.”
Paul Greaney KC, on behalf of the RMP, said soldiers on operations were “not outside or above the law” and stressed the operational challenges faced by the military police trying to investigate any suspected case of murder in Afghanistan during active conflict.
He highlighted that the RMP was reliant on commanding officers referring cases of potential war crimes and serious offences to them for investigation – pointing out that senior officers are obliged to do so by law.
Two RMP investigations, codenamed Operation Cestro and Operation Northmoor, are also expected to be scrutinised by the inquiry.
Northmoor detectives spent five years investigating evidence that one SAS squadron had killed dozens of unarmed men, detainees and civilians, but resulted in no charges being brought.
Operation Cestro investigated the killing of four young people in Loy Bagh village in Helmand on 18 October 2012. The youngest were 14 and 12 when they were killed by a member of the SAS. The RMP referred three soldiers to the Service Prosecuting Authority – including the shooter on four counts of murder – but it resulted in no prosecutions.
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