The BBC issues an investigation into possible executions and the silence of commanders and the Ministry
A BBC investigation, broadcast on its ‘Panorama’ programme, claims that squadrons from the Special Air Service (SAS) regiment killed numerous unarmed civilians in Afghanistan in 2011 and 2012, when British troops and their allies They were battling the Taliban in Helmand province. The Army Ministry has criticized the information as “subjective.”
What is described is a series of murders because, in the documentation collected, the investigators of the public radio and television entity have spoken with witnesses who affirm that there was competition between squads to count more deaths than those caused by the one who had served the previous shift. It is also suspected that they left AK-47 submachine guns in the houses where they committed the crimes to claim that the deceased were armed.
Nine Afghan men who were in the annex for overnight visitors were killed one night, following Afghan tradition, and eight men were killed under the same conditions two days later. The height of the bullet holes in the walls of the houses suggests that they died while kneeling or lying down. A month later they killed another eight, taking them to a house to search them.
Parents of victims tell the BBC that their children were not Taliban and that neither they nor the visitors were armed. A man identified as Salifullah reported the crimes and the court case uncovered documents that the BBC used for its investigation. Finally, someone at the Special Forces headquarters turned over a large number of internal documents to the journalists.
The report affirms that the military commanders and the Ministry of Defense blocked the investigation by the Royal Military Police. The SAS is specialized in penetrating behind enemy lines. If the reported facts are confirmed, the commission of war crimes and the lack of clarity of their commands would damage their prestige as a combat elite.
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