BBCThe two former heads of all of Britain’s special forces suppressed evidence of possible SAS war crimes, a former high-ranking officer told a public inquiry in closed evidence sessions.
The officer, who was one of the most senior in the special forces, said he had given “explosive” evidence suggesting “criminal behaviour” to the then Director Special Forces in 2011.
The officer also told the inquiry that the subsequent Director of Special Forces, who took over in 2012, “obviously knew there was a problem in Afghanistan” and failed to act.
“It’s just a director who is not aware of this”, he said in his evidence, adding that the UK Special Forces leadership was “deeply suppressing” the allegations.
The officer in question, known by the code N1466, confirmed that no special forces chief had made any disturbing allegations to the Royal Military Police (RMP), while British law requires commanders to inform the RMP of any possibility someone 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 allege that evidence of war crimes was suppressed by those who led the SAS.
His testimony comes from a summary of a closed-door hearing conducted by the Independent Inquiry into Afghanistan, which is investigating allegations of war crimes by special forces.
The rules of the investigation mean that the names of former directors accused by the officer cannot be reported.
The Afghan investigation was launched in the wake of allegations of unlawful killings by the SAS, reported by BBC Panorama in 2022.
The program revealed that in just six months of the tour, 54 detainees and unarmed men were killed under suspicious circumstances by the SAS.
The program also found evidence that General Sir Mark Carleton-Smith, the director of special forces in 2012, had failed to report war crimes.
At the start of the investigation, General Carleton-Smith and Lieutenant General Jonathan Page, the previous Director of Special Forces, were both named in proceedings in relation to claims that they had failed to inform the RMP about the allegations.
‘criminal behaviour’
N1466 told the inquiry that he first became concerned in February 2011, when he saw that SAS reports coming from Afghanistan showed that the regiment was killing people in suspicious circumstances and in unusually large numbers, with some operations recovering very little enemy weapons which was not enough to justify the number of deaths.
N1466 said their suspicions stemmed from a night raid in which nine Afghans were killed and only three weapons were claimed to have been found. BBC Panorama visited the scene of that raid years later, in 2022, and found bullet holes close to the ground inside the room where the people died.
Weapons experts told Panorama that the pattern showed the victims were shot while lying down, and the gunfire described by the SAS in its report was unlikely. The family said they were civilians and had no weapons at their home.
N1466 also told the inquiry that he was made aware of the whistleblower’s testimony that SAS soldiers were overheard during a training course bragging about killing all “fighting-age” men during the operation, regardless of whether they posed a threat or not.
Along with the operational reports, N1466 “was deeply troubled by the fact that I had every suspicion that there had been unlawful killing of innocent people, including children,” he testified.
“Let me be clear, we are talking about war crimes,” he said.
In response, in April 2011, N1466 commissioned a review from another officer at Special Forces Headquarters of recent SAS operations. He told the inquiry that the results looked “surprisingly bad” for the SAS.
This review is part of the evidence he presented to the then Director Special Forces in 2011. He said he “clearly indicated to them” that “there was a strong possibility of criminal behavior.”
N1466 testified that the Director was “fully aware of what was going on” in Afghanistan with regard to alleged war crimes, and was “fully aware of what his responsibilities were” when it came to reporting allegations to the military police.
The Director did not contact the police, but instead ordered an internal review of the SAS squadron’s tactics – a move N1466 described as a “warning shot” to the squadron to reduce violence.
N1466 said, “The director made a conscious decision to suppress it, hide it, and do a little fake practice to make it look like they did something.”
The latter’s “tactics, techniques and procedures” were reviewed by an SAS officer who visited Afghanistan but only spoke to other members of the regiment. The resulting report fully accepted the accounts of those suspected of carrying out unlawful killings.
Bruce Holder Casey, who as former Director of Service Prosecutions was responsible for charging and prosecuting people serving in the armed forces, told the BBC that the law “imposed a very clear duty” on commanding officers to report suspected crimes “including murder, which is what we are talking about here”.
“Had this come to my knowledge, I would have asked the service police to investigate the DSF for its failure to report in 2011,” he said.
N1466 eventually reported the evidence directly to the Royal Military Police in January 2015, almost four years after they first raised their concerns and only after the RMP launched Operation Northmoor, was the SAS investigated.
He told the inquiry that it was “very regrettable” that he had not gone to the RMP sooner, nor urged the director to send the evidence to the RMP – a move he saw at the time as going out of line.
He said, “When you look back, at the people who died unnecessarily since that time – two children were shot in their beds next to their parents, you know – all of that… didn’t necessarily have to have happened.”
He was referring to the SAS raid in Nimruz province in August 2012, first exposed by the BBC, in which two young parents were shot dead in bed with their infant sons, who were also shot and seriously injured.
The raid, which took place after the new Director of Special Forces took charge, was never reported to the Military Police.
The Director, who took over in 2012, told the BBC that the allegations made by N1466 were refuted and that he would provide a comprehensive response to each of these matters in his evidence to the inquiry in due course.
He said that none of his senior commanders raised any concerns or presented any evidence of unlawful killings at any level during his three-year tenure and there were no allegations or evidence that he was aware of to refer to the RMP.
The former officer who was director of special forces in 2011 did not respond to a request for comment.
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