LONDON: A former senior British officer has told a public inquiry that the UK’s elite Special Air Service (SAS) may have committed war crimes in Afghanistan by executing detainees.
He said many senior officers knew about this, but no action was taken.
The Ministry of Defence launched the inquiry after a BBC documentary reported that SAS soldiers had killed 54 people in suspicious circumstances more than ten years ago.
The inquiry focuses on night-time raids carried out by British forces between 2010 and 2013 while fighting the Taliban and other militants as part of a U.S.-led coalition.
The former officer said he noticed that the number of people killed often exceeded the number of weapons recovered, and that some claims of detainees attacking soldiers did not seem believable. He raised concerns with senior commanders, but they only reviewed tactics instead of investigating possible crimes.
Other evidence to the inquiry described frustration among soldiers when captured suspects were quickly released by Afghan courts, and rivalry between special forces units. Some officers said they were horrified by the idea that unlawful killings might have been covered up.–Reuters
