[ad_1]
British special air force operatives in Afghanistan regularly killed prisoners of war and unarmed people in suspicious circumstances, according to a recent BBC investigation into the bitter conflict.
New military reports suggest that a British army unit may have unlawfully killed 54 innocent people during its six-month mission.
The British state broadcaster BBC found evidence suggesting that the head of the special forces was aware of and had not announced the opening of the investigation into the murder.
The development comes at a time when the British Ministry of Defense says that British troops in Afghanistan “have served with courage and professionalism”.
The BBC says the former head of military special forces there, General Sir Mark Carleton-Smith, was questioned about the unlawful killings but did not pass the information on to the military police to launch an investigation.
General Carleton-Smith then became army chief before resigning last month, declining to comment on the matter.
The BBC Panorama program analyzed hundreds of pages of “capture or kill” missions carried out by the SAS special forces squadron in the Helmand region in 2010/11.
Individuals who have served with the SAS squadron told the BBC they have seen SAS operatives hanging unarmed people during night raids.
They said that they also saw the operatives who after the murders “placed weapons” – AK-47 at the crime scene to justify the murders of unarmed persons.
In even more macabre detail, some individuals among the SAS special forces competed to see who would do the most killing, and that the squadron itself, analyzed by the BBC, was trying to achieve a higher kill count than the one it had previously replaced.
The defense ministry said it could not comment on specific allegations but said the refusal to comment did not mean the allegations were taken as true.
For the latest investigation the BBC analyzed new operational reports on night raids by the SAS, where Afghan men were killed after being arrested for drawing their weapons.
The BBC’s investigation focused on a particular SAS squadron that began its mission in Afghanistan in November 2010 and operated mainly in Helmand province, then one of the most dangerous.
top channel
[ad_2]
Source link
