Afghanistan Inquiry Chair Says SAS Evidence Delays ‘Extremely Troubling’

The chair of an inquiry looking into allegations about UK special forces in Afghanistan has criticised the Ministry of Defence for delays in providing evidence.

British soldiers from 21 Air Assault Battery Royal Artillery are silhouetted against the sky as they provide security for a meeting with the Afghan National Police at the fortress Qala-e-Bost in Lashkar Gah, Helmand Province, on May 17 2006. John D. McHugh/AFP via Getty Images

The chairman of an independent inquiry looking into allegations Britain’s elite Special Air Service (SAS) carried out “massacres” of young men during night raids in Afghanistan has described delays in providing evidence as “extremely troubling.”

The inquiry, which began in October, is investigating claims the SAS had a policy of executing men of “fighting age” in deliberate detention operations (DDOs) during the Taliban insurgency between 2010 and 2013.