Former members of Britain’s Special Forces have accused fellow soldiers of war crimes committed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In an investigation aired on May 12 by BBC Panorama, ex-SAS and SBS soldiers accused their comrades of executing unarmed detainees, including children, falsifying operational reports, and planting weapons on bodies to avoid scrutiny.
The testimony comes as a public inquiry examines allegations that SAS members unlawfully killed civilians during night raids in Helmand Province between 2010 and 2011.
The new Panorama investigation suggests the scale of these abuses was much larger than previously thought.
The new evidence points to repeated patterns of unlawful killings across multiple operations by both SAS and SBS. Veterans describe detainees being shot after surrendering, some while handcuffed or asleep. “Drop weapons” like pistols or grenades were later planted to make the killings appear legitimate.
“They’d search someone, handcuff them, then shoot them,” said one SAS veteran to the BBC. “Then they’d plant a pistol or grenade by the body.”
Subscribe to our newsletter and stay updated on the latest news and updates from around the Muslim world!
These revelations, which echo findings from a major 2022 investigation by Action on Armed Violence (AOAV), paint a disturbing picture of a military culture where elite soldiers acted with impunity. The systems meant to hold them accountable failed repeatedly.
One SBS veteran described how colleagues developed “serious psychopathic traits” and felt “untouchable” during operations.
Eyewitnesses said these killings became “routine,” with little effort to capture targets alive. Multiple accounts also describe people being executed at close range, even when receiving medical treatment.
“It was expected, not hidden,” one veteran said. “Everyone knew.”
In one particularly gruesome incident, an SAS operator allegedly slit the throat of a wounded Afghan man after telling a superior officer not to shoot him — claiming he wanted to “blood his knife.”
The investigation also confirms previous reports of “drop weapons” used to stage killings. One former SAS member said he carried folding-stock AK-47s for this purpose. Others used inert grenades for staged photos.
“They handcuffed a young boy and shot him,” one SAS veteran said. “He was clearly a child, not even close to fighting age.”
Operational reports were routinely falsified to avoid military police investigations. One veteran said they knew how to write incident reviews to prevent mandatory referrals: “The reports were fiction.”
An SBS intelligence officer said after-action reports claimed firefights had taken place, even when photos showed corpses with clean headshots, suggesting no real exchange of fire.
Asked by the BBC about the new eyewitness testimony, the Ministry of Defence said that it was “fully committed” to supporting the ongoing public inquiry into the alleged war crimes and that it urged all veterans with relevant information to come forward.
It said that it was “not appropriate for the MoD to comment on allegations” which may be in the inquiry’s scope.
