Chief knew about Afghan war crimes, inquiry told

The head of the UK's special forces (UKSF) knew soldiers had probably committed war crimes in Afghanistan but failed to act and conducted a “fake exercise” to cover it up, according to damning new testimony.

- HOLLY BANCROFT

One of the most senior special forces officers in the British Army told the Afghan war crimes inquiry that he first raised concerns that Afghans were being killed unlawfully and that stories were being invented to disguise the deaths in February 2011.

In a new batch of documents released by the inquiry, the senior officer, known only as N1466, said he tried to get the special forces chief to act, but instead, the director conducted a “fake exercise” of a review that did not get to the bottom of what was happening.

He told the independent inquiry in secret evidence sessions: “I will be clear we are talking about war crimes.”

N1466, who was the assistant chief of staff for operations in UKSF headquarters between 2010 and 2011, said he first became concerned about reports of Afghans being killed on operations around February 2011, when the deaths didn't tally with the number of weapons recovered.

He became further alarmed by reports of Afghans dying in custody after they had apparently tried to make futile attempts to attack their captors, but he said some accounts were "so implausible as to be ridiculous".

He explained his shock when he was later shown photos of dead Afghans by military police, which showed people with headshot wounds, despite the official write-up of the incident saying they had been caught in crossfire.