Spies and SAS among 100-plus Britons hit by Afghan data breach

Details of members of the SAS are among more than 100 Britons named in the database of 18,700 Afghans, the accidental leak of which by a defence official led to thousands being secretly relocated to Britain.

- Dan Sabbagh

Defence sources said the sensitive document contained names and email addresses belonging to people sponsoring or linked to some individual cases. Personal information about MI6 officers was also included.

The identities of members of the SAS and MI6 are a closely guarded secret, and the possibility that following the leak such information could have ended up in the public domain was a source of official concern.

SAS and other special forces officers were involved in assessing whether Afghans who said they were members of the elite 333 and 444 units, known as the Triples, were allowed to come to Britain.

Defence sources said the dataset also referred to a "secret route" which Afghans could use to come to Britain.

It emerged this week that the Ministry of Defence had obtained a superinjunction preventing the fact of the leak from being reported, and that a £2bn-plus scheme had been created to relocate some Afghans affected by the breach to Britain to protect them from the Taliban.