Former members of UK Special Forces have shared their stories with BBC Panorama. They talk about alleged war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.These veterans have spoken out for the first time. They describe seeing SAS members kill unarmed people in their sleep. They also talk about executing handcuffed detainees, including children.
"They handcuffed a young boy and shot him," recalled one veteran who served with the SAS in Afghanistan. "He was clearly a child, not even close to fighting age."Killing detainees became routine, the veteran said. "They'd search someone, handcuff them, then shoot them". They would then cut off the plastic handcuffs and "plant a pistol" by the body, he said.The new testimony includes allegations of war crimes over more than a decade. This is longer than the three years currently being examined by a judge-led public inquiry in the UK.The SBS, the Royal Navy's elite special forces regiment, is also implicated. For the first time, they are accused of executing unarmed and wounded people.A veteran who served with the SBS said some troops had a "mob mentality". He described their behavior on operations as "barbaric".
"I saw the quietest guys switch, show serious psychopathic traits," he said. "They were lawless. They felt untouchable."Special Forces were deployed to Afghanistan to protect British troops from Taliban fighters and bombmakers. The conflict was deadly for the UK's armed forces – 457 lost their lives and thousands more were wounded.Asked by the BBC about the new eyewitness testimony, the Ministry of Defence said it was "fully committed" to supporting the ongoing public inquiry. It urged all veterans with relevant information to come forward. It said it was "not appropriate for the MoD to comment on allegations" which may be in the inquiry's scope.
'Psychotic murderers' in the regiment
The eyewitness testimony offers the most detailed public account of the killings to date from former members of UK Special Forces (UKSF). The UKSF includes the SAS, SBS, and several supporting regiments.The testimony, from more than 30 people who served with or alongside UK Special Forces, builds on years of reporting by BBC Panorama into allegations of extrajudicial killings by the SAS.Panorama can also reveal for the first time that then Prime Minister David Cameron was repeatedly warned during his tenure that UK Special Forces were killing civilians in Afghanistan.Speaking on condition of anonymity because of a de facto code of silence around special forces operations, the eyewitnesses told the BBC that the laws of war were being regularly and intentionally broken by the country's most elite regiments during operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan.Those laws state that on such operations people can be deliberately killed only when they pose a direct threat to the lives of British troops or others. But members of the SAS and SBS were making their own rules, the eyewitnesses said.
"If a target had popped up on the list two or three times before, then we'd go in with the intention of killing them, there was no attempt to capture them," said one veteran who served with the SAS, referring to people who had been previously captured, questioned and then released."Sometimes we'd check we'd identified the target, confirm their ID, then shoot them," he said. "Often the squadron would just go and kill all the men they found there."One witness who served with the SAS said that killing could become "an addictive thing to do" and that some members of the elite regiment were "intoxicated by that feeling" in Afghanistan. There were "lots of psychotic murderers", he said."On some operations, the troop would go into guesthouse-type buildings and kill everyone there," he said. "They'd go in and shoot everyone sleeping there, on entry. It's not justified, killing people in their sleep."A veteran who served with the SBS told the BBC that after bringing an area under control, assault teams would sweep through the area shooting anyone on the ground, checking the bodies and killing anyone left alive. "It was expected, not hidden. Everyone knew," he said.
Killing wounded people who don't pose a threat is against international law. Yet, a SBS veteran shared with Panorama that this was common. He talked about an operation where a medic was treating a wounded person.Just then, another soldier shot the person in the head at close range. The veteran called these actions "completely unnecessary" and "murder".Younger members of assault teams were told to kill male detainees by senior SAS operators. They used phrases like "he's not coming back to base with us".Detainees were people who had surrendered and were often handcuffed. British and international laws ban killing unarmed civilians or prisoners of war.A former SAS operator also shared about an execution in Iraq. He said the victim posed no threat and was unarmed. He called it "disgraceful" and said it was never properly investigated.The problem existed before the SAS moved to Afghanistan, he said. Senior commanders knew about it.New video evidence from 2006 supports Panorama's previous reports. It shows SAS squadrons competing to kill the most people.
Some SAS members kept their own kill counts. One operator killed dozens in just six months in Afghanistan. His colleagues saw him as a psychopath.In one infamous incident, the operator slit the throat of an injured Afghan man. He wanted to "blood his knife".Not just small teams knew about the crimes. The whole UK Special Forces command structure was aware, said a veteran. "Everyone knew" and there was "implicit approval".To hide the killings, SAS and SBS members planted fake weapons on the dead. They used fake grenades and AK-47s with folding stocks.Officers then falsified reports to avoid scrutiny. They knew how to write reviews that wouldn't trigger an investigation."We understood how to write up serious incident reviews so they wouldn't trigger a referral to the military police," one veteran said.
Reports were "a fiction
An intelligence officer shared reports of fake firefights and bodies with clean headshots.Falsified paperwork could stop an investigation by the Royal Military Police. But, Afghan commanders and government officials were deeply concerned.David Cameron made seven visits to Afghanistan as prime minister. This was between June 2010 and November 2013. The SAS public inquiry is now looking into this period.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai often talked about his concerns during these meetings. Dr Rangin Dadfar Spanta, a former Afghan national security adviser, told Panorama about this. He said Karzai made it clear that civilians, including children, were being killed by UK Special Forces.
Gen Douglas Lute, a former US ambassador to Nato, also spoke about Karzai's complaints. He said Karzai's concerns about night raids, civilian casualties, and detentions were well-known. This was a major issue for him, Lute noted.Gen Lute believes it's unlikely that the British chain of command didn't know about these claims. He said it would have been very unusual if they didn't know.A spokesperson for Lord Cameron told Panorama that Karzai's concerns were about Nato forces in general. They said specific incidents with UK Special Forces were not mentioned. The spokesperson also mentioned that we should wait for the official findings of the Inquiry.They called any suggestion that Lord Cameron covered up allegations "total nonsense".
The UK doesn't have parliamentary oversight of its elite special forces. Strategic responsibility for their actions lies with the prime minister, defence secretary, and head of special forces.Bruce Houlder KC, a former director of service prosecutions, hopes the inquiry will look into Lord Cameron's knowledge. He wants to know how deep the problem goes.Do you have information about this story you want to share?Use SecureDrop, a highly anonymous and secure way to whistleblow to the BBC. It uses the TOR network.Or use the Signal messaging app, an end-to-end encrypted message service. It's designed to protect your data.
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