The command in the Special Air Corps (SAS) of the British Corps killed at least 54 Afghan residents in a suspicious condition but the military command chain hid fears, the BBC investigation said Tuesday.
Afghan men who were not armed routinely shot dead “in cold blood” by SAS troops during the night attack during a long war, and weapons were planted on them to justify crime, a four -year investigation was found.
Senior officers including General Mark Carton-Smith, who led the British special forces at the time, learned of concerns in SAS about the operation but failed to report it to the military police, he said.
Under the British law governing the armed forces, it is a criminal offense for a commander to fail to inform the military police if they know the potential of war crimes, said the BBC.
Carleton-Smith, who retired last month as the head of the British army as a whole, refused to comment on the “Panorama” BBC program, which said the investigation was based on court documents, leaking emails and journalist’s own journey to the operating website in Afghanistan.
The Ministry of Defense said the previous investigation of the behavior of British troops in Afghanistan found insufficient evidence to submit demands.
“There is no new evidence presented, but the service police will consider any accusations if new evidence is revealed,” he said in a statement to the BBC.
“The British armed forces serve with courage and professionalism in Afghanistan and we will always hold them with the highest standards.”
Police ‘obstructed’
The panoramic investigation, aired fully on Tuesday night, identified 54 people who were shot dead in a suspicious state by a SAS unit during a six -month tour of Helmand Province from November 2010 to May 2011.
Reports after the action showed that other officers were surprised by the high level of victims caused by the unit, when no SAS troops reported injuries to clear shootouts with Taliban militants.
“Too many people were killed in the night attack and the explanation did not make sense. After someone was detained, they should not die,” said a senior officer at the headquarters of a special forces to the panorama.
“So that it happens repeatedly causing alarm at the headquarters. Obviously at that time there was something wrong.”
There is a special concern that the SAS bullet hole found in the Afghan Housing Compound after the raid was all low – showing that the suspect kneeling or vulnerable to the ground.
Some warnings were delivered by the chain of command, said the BBC. But Sas Sass was allowed to complete the tour of six months and was deployed to others in 2012.
In 2014, the Royal Military Police launched an investigation of more than 600 alleged violations by British troops in Afghanistan, including a number of murders by SAS Sass.
But RMP investigators told the BBC that they were “hampered” by the British military, and the investigation ended in 2019.
Colonel Oliver Lee, who was a royal Marine Commander in Afghanistan in 2011, told the program that the accusation was “very surprising” and was appropriate for a full public investigation.