SAS Massacred Young Men in Afghanistan During Night Raids, Inquiry Told

An inquiry at the Royal Courts of Justice in London has been told SAS soldiers killed a number of innocent young men during tours of duty in Afghanistan.

British soldiers 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

An independent inquiry has been told soldiers from Britain’s elite Special Air Service (SAS) carried out “massacres” of young men during night raids in Afghanistan between 2010 and 2013.

The inquiry, sitting at the Royal Courts of Justice in London and chaired by Sir Charles Haddon-Cave, heard the SAS allegedly had a policy of executing men of “fighting age” in Afghanistan during the Taliban insurgency.

On Monday Oliver Glasgow KC, counsel to the inquiry, said they mounted “deliberate detention operations” (DDOs) at night but “abused” the system to bump off men who were not insurgents and posed no threat to them.

Mr. Glasgow said in one DDO raid nine men were killed, all allegedly shot in bed, “most likely while asleep.”

Mr. Glasgow—a prominent prosecution barrister who has obtained the convictions of many murderers at the Old Bailey—said some Afghan units, “refused to serve with UK special forces due to their behaviour.”

The SAS has insisted they were acting in self-defence.

The independent statutory inquiry was commissioned by Defence Secretary Ben Wallace following a series of legal challenges from solicitors representing two Afghan families and investigations by the Sunday Times and the BBC’s Panorama programme.

The Saifullah and Noorzai families brought judicial review proceedings against the Ministry of Defence in 2019 and 2020, which challenged the MoD’s alleged failure to properly investigate the deaths.

Mr. Glasgow said the Royal Military Police (RMP) had mounted an investigation of the alleged war crimes but were unable to arrest the chief of staff for the UK special forces in Afghanistan on suspicion of perverting the course of justice after the “locks were changed” at his headquarters.

Chair of the Afghanistan Inquiry, Sir Charles Haddon-Cave, arrives at the Royal Courts of Justice in London on Oct. 9, 2023. PA

On Tuesday, continuing his opening statement, Mr. Glasgow said the RMP were instructed to “take no action” when data regarding allegedly unlawful special forces killings in Afghanistan was deleted from a computer server.

The inquiry heard the deletion of the server known as ITS1 at the special forces HQ in the UK was “irreversible” and was in, “direct disobeyance” of the RMP’s demands to preserve all data appertaining to events in Afghanistan.

‘Conspiracy to Cover up Wrongdoing’?

Mr. Glasgow: “Whether this was … part of a conspiracy to cover up wrongdoing by UK special forces… will need to be examined and determined in due course.”

The ITS1 server contained data from Operation Northmoor, a wide-ranging investigation launched by the RMP in 2014 into hundreds of war crimes in Afghanistan, including a number of alleged extra-judicial killings, including those of children, by the SAS. It was closed down in 2019 without anyone being charged.

Mr. Glasgow said the senior investigating officer (SIO) at the RMP, who has not been named, said in December 2016: “The deletion process has been conducted in such a way that it is irreversible and impossible to determine what has been deleted. This is in direct disobeyance to our demands to preserve the data in its entirety.”

The hearing was told the gold commander at the UK special forces headquarters overruled the SIO, who later said he had been instructed to, “take no action in respect of the deletion of data from the ITS1 server.”

Mr. Glasgow said: “Accordingly, after nearly 15 months of negotiations to recover the entire data set from the UK special forces server, the SIO was instructed not to take any steps to secure what was promised and not to investigate why it was that (the UK special forces headquarters) had permitted data to be deleted.”

Mr. Glasgow said: “Whether material was deleted, why it was deleted and what prevented this being independently investigated are matters that the inquiry will consider with care.”

“Whether this was, as has been suggested in some quarters, part of a conspiracy to cover up wrongdoing by UK special forces and designed to prevent Operation Northmoor from uncovering the truth, or whether this was simply the result of a server migration error, will need to be examined and determined in due course,” added Mr. Glasgow.

RMP Will not ‘Shy Away From any Findings’

Paul Greaney KC, representing the RMP, said it would not “shy away from any findings” which suggested “failings in its investigations.”

He said: “These were, RMP believes, properly and appropriately substantial investigations staffed by RMP personnel doing their utmost in difficult circumstances.”

Brian Altman KC, representing the MoD, said the ministry had an “enduring commitment to the inquiry.”

He said: “The MoD acknowledges the extreme gravity of these allegations which are at the heart of this inquiry and is determined that the inquiry should follow the evidence and arrive at the truth.”

The inquiry is expected to last several weeks.

PA Media contributed to this report.