A former British special forces officer has told an inquiry that senior SAS commanders covered up unlawful killings in Afghanistan, including the shooting of two toddlers as they slept beside their parents during a 2012 raid.
A former director of the UK special forces and other senior military officers of the Special Air Service (SAS) units are facing allegations of covering up unlawful killings in Afghanistan, an inquiry has heard.
An ex-special forces whistleblower claimed that senior officials failed to stop the unlawful killings of unarmed civilians in Afghanistan, including the shooting of “two small toddlers who were shot in their bed next to their parents,” with the first complaints being raised as early as 2011.
The current cover-up allegations are considered to be some of the worst raised against UK forces in Afghanistan thus far, with an ongoing inquiry claiming that 80 people were subject to summary executions by members of three different British SAS units operating in Afghanistan.
The inquiry was led by Lord Justice Haddon-Cave after being launched in 2023 following the whistleblower’s allegations.
Referred to as cipher N1466, the whistleblower is said to have first flagged his concerns over potential war crimes to a director of the special forces and other senior military officials in February 2011.
Disturbing allegations
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In newly released evidence that was provided to the court in secret last year by the whistleblower, transcripts reveal the disturbing reality of the alleged war crimes that took place. He said: “We could have stopped it in February 2011. Those people who died unnecessarily from that point onwards, there were two toddlers shot in their bed next to their parents… all that would not necessarily have come to pass if that had been stopped.”
The ex-officer’s allegations raised in court are believed to refer to the injuries sustained by the children of Hussain Uzabakzai and his wife, Ruqquia Haleem, Imran and Bilal. The two children were allegedly shot while asleep in their beds during a night-time operation in the village of Shesh Aba in Nimruz province in 2012, where both their parents were killed.
Speaking to the inquiry in a short video in 2023, the uncle of Imran and Bilal said: “Even to this day, they are grieving the incident that happened to us… We are asking for the court to listen to these children and bring justice.”
N1466 claims that the directors and senior personnel tried to suppress information regarding the alleged war crimes. He said: “The director made a conscious decision that he is going to suppress this, cover this up and do a little fake exercise to make it look like he’s done something.”
“It was blatantly clear from the statistics and the patterns that there was something wrong here… I believe he knew it wasn’t… a problem with the TTP.” He added: “The root problem was the intent [to kill].”
Unlawful killings continued
N1466 left the special forces for a period before returning again in 2014 to find evidence that the unlawful killings had continued, with a summary of his evidence revealing that the killings “had not stopped at all” upon his return and “had carried on at least into 2013,” adding that he found it “shocking.”
The whistleblower also described one raid to military police which resulted in a particularly brutal set of killings when UK forces fired blindly into a mosquito net. He said: “When the net was uncovered it was women and children. The incident was covered up and the individual who did the shooting was given some form of award to make it look legitimate.”
There were also descriptions of SAS forces taking detainees along to raids and “executing them, with the pretence being that they conducted violence against the forces.”
As he told the inquiry, N1466 said: “I was deeply troubled by what I strongly suspected was the unlawful killing of innocent people, including children, and that the success of the whole campaign with the heavy investment of lives lost by UK and Afghan forces was being jeopardised by these killings.”
The killings were described by N1466 as a “stain” on the reputation of the special forces.
A spokesperson from the Ministry of Defence said: “The government is fully committed to supporting the independent inquiry relating to Afghanistan as it continues its work, and we are hugely grateful to all former and current defence employees who have so far given evidence.”
