The Daily Telegraph: The British deliberately killed all males of fighting age and teenagers in Afghanistan

Soldiers from one of the British Special Air Service (SAS) units deliberately killed all males of fighting age in Afghanistan, The Daily Telegraph writes, citing an anonymous British officer who made the revelation during a public inquiry into alleged war crimes committed by the British military during the 2010-2013 war in Afghanistan.

According to the source, SAS unit members also targeted males under 16, even if they posed no threat to troops.

It was also noted that members of the allegedly rogue special forces unit “dropped” weapons next to their victims “to give the impression that a deceased individual had been armed when shot.” As mentioned, the witness told the Afghanistan inquiry that he learnt of the alleged war crimes from a soldier in the accused unit UKSF1 while on a joint training exercise in March 2011. He gave a statement in 2011 to his then-commanding officer, who told the inquiry in a separate evidence session that he did not raise the claims with his counterpart in UKSF1 because he believed reporting allegations of murder may have been seen as “mud-slinging”. The commanding officer of the whistleblower’s unit made a written record of their conversation. Then, he met with the Director Special Forces (DSF) in person.

The public inquiry into alleged SAS war crimes in Afghanistan was launched after a BBC Panorama investigation. The investigation aims to establish whether the U.K.’s military and political leadership covered up extrajudicial killings in Afghanistan for more than 10 years. The inquiry chairman is Lord Justice Haddon-Cave, a judge serving in the Court of Appeal of England and Wales.

The Daily Telegraph noted that previously, based on the results of two investigations by the military prosecutor’s office, none of the U.K.’s military personnel were held accountable.