UK army 'tried to hide the killings of Afghans'

Afghanistan. Theinquiry, led by Lord Justice Haddon-Cave, was launched in 2023.

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The whistleblower, referred to only by the cipher N1466, said he first flagged concerns about possible “war crimes” to the director of special forces and others in February 2011.

‘According to newly released redacted transcripts of evidence given in secret last year, the officer 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 allegation appears to refer to the serious injuries sustained by the children of Hussain Uzbakzai and Ruqquia Haleem, Imran and Bilal, who are alleged to have been shot while asleep in their beds during a nighttime operation in the village of Shesh Aba, in Nimruz province, in 2012. Imran and Bilal’s parents were both killed in the same incident.

Speaking to the inquiry in a short video in 2023, the children’s uncle, Mansour Aziz, 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.”