Special Forces heads suppressed SAS war crime evidence, inquiry hears

Two former heads of the UK Special Forces suppressed evidence of possible SAS war crimes, a former high-ranking officer has told a public inquiry in closed evidence sessions.

The officer, who is among the most senior officers in the special forces, said he passed “explosive” evidence to the then special forces director in 2011 that suggested “criminal behaviour”.

The officer also told the inquiry that the special forces chief, who took over in 2012, “clearly knew there was a problem in Afghanistan” and failed to act.

He stated in his statement that “there is not a single manager who knows this” and added that the UK Special Forces leadership “massively suppressed” the allegations.

The officer, identified during the investigation by the codename N1466, confirmed that neither special force chief had passed any of the disturbing allegations to the Royal Military Police (RMP), even though British law requires commanders to inform the RMP of the possibility that anyone under their command may have committed a serious criminal offence.

N1466’s testimony is significant because he is the highest-ranking former special forces officer to claim that evidence of war crimes was suppressed by those who led the SAS.

His testimony comes from summaries of closed-door hearings of the Independent Inquiry into Afghanistan, which is examining allegations of special forces war crimes.

The rules of the investigation mean that the names of former executives accused by the police cannot be reported.

The Afghan investigation was launched following allegations of unlawful killings by the SAS, reported by BBC Panorama in 2022.

program It was revealed that 54 detainees and unarmed men were killed by the SAS only on a six-month tour in questionable circumstances.

The program also found evidence in 2012 that the chief of special forces, General Sir Mark Carleton-Smith, failed to report war crimes.

At the outset of the investigation, both General Carleton-Smith and former special forces director Lieutenant General Jonathan Page were named at the hearing in relation to allegations they failed to report the allegations to the RMP.

N1466 told the inquiry he first became concerned in February 2011 after realizing SAS reports from Afghanistan showed the regiment had killed unusually high numbers of people and in suspicious circumstances, with too few enemy weapons captured in some operations to justify the number of deaths.

N1466 said his suspicions began with a night raid in which nine Afghan men were allegedly killed and only three weapons were found. BBC Panorama visited the raid scene Years later, in 2022, bullet holes were found clustered near the floor inside the room where the men died.

Weapons experts told Panorama that the model showed the victims were shot while they were lying down and that the conflict described by the SAS in its report was unlikely. The family said that they were civilians and there were no weapons in their home.

N1466 also told the inquiry that it was made aware of whistleblower testimony that SAS soldiers were heard boasting during a training course about killing all men of “martial age” during operations, regardless of whether they posed a threat.

Along with the operational reports, he stated that N1466 was “deeply disturbed by what I strongly suspect is the unlawful killing of innocent people, including children.”

“I’ll be clear, we’re talking about war crimes,” he said.

In response, in April 2011 N1466 requested a review of recent SAS operations from another officer at special forces headquarters. He told the inquiry the results looked “surprisingly bad” for the SAS.

The review formed part of the evidence he presented to the then chief of special forces in 2011. He said it “made it quite clear to him that there was a strong criminal potential.”

N1466 testified that the director “absolutely knew what was going on” in Afghanistan regarding alleged war crimes and “absolutely knew what his responsibilities were” when it came to reporting the allegations to the military police.

The Director did not contact the police, instead ordering an internal review of the SAS squadron’s tactics – N1466 was described as a “warning shot” to the squadron to de-escalate violence.

N1466 said the director “made a conscious decision that he was going to suppress it, cover it up and do a little fake exercise to make it look like he did something.”

The subsequent review of “tactics, techniques and procedures” was carried out by an SAS officer who visited Afghanistan but spoke only to other members of the Regiment. The resulting report fully accepted the statements of those suspected of committing unlawful killings.

Bruce Houlder KC, a former director of public prosecutions responsible for charging and prosecuting members of the armed forces, told the BBC that the law “puts a very clear duty on commanders” to report suspected crimes “including murder, which we are talking about here”.

“If this had been my knowledge, I would have asked the service police to investigate the DSF for not reporting in 2011,” he said.

N1466 reported the evidence directly to the Royal Military Police in January 2015, almost four years after he first raised his concerns and only after the RMP launched Operation Northmoor, an investigation into the SAS.

He told the inquest it was “a matter of great regret” that he had not gone to the RMP sooner and did not urge the manager to send the evidence to the RMP – a move he said at the time he saw as crossing the line.

“When you look back and you look at the people who died needlessly from that point on — there were two young children who were shot in their beds next to their parents — all of that … wouldn’t necessarily have happened,” he said.

He was referring to the SAS raid in Nimruz province in August 2012. first revealed by BBCTwo young parents were fatally shot while in bed with their infant son, who was also shot and critically injured.

The raid, which took place after the new special forces chief took office, was never reported to the military police.

The director, who took over in 2012, told the BBC that the allegations made by N1466 were denied and that he would provide a comprehensive response to each of these matters in due course in his statements to the investigation.

He said none of his senior commanders had raised any concerns or provided any evidence of unlawful killings at any stage during his three-year tenure, and that there was no allegation or evidence that he knew of that would refer to the RMP.

The former officer, who became special forces director in 2011, did not respond to a request for comment.