British special forces may have committed war crimes during their deployment in Afghanistan. This is suggested by research by the British broadcaster BBC, which was published on Tuesday.
According to this, units of the Special Air Service (SAS) are said to have killed at least 54 Afghans under suspicious circumstances between November 2010 and May 2011 in the southern Afghan province of Helmand.
Unarmed men were regularly shot “in cold blood” during night raids, the BBC program “Panorama” reported, citing four years of research. Weapons were foisted on the shot Afghans to justify the killings, it said.
The BBC report is based on court documents, leaked emails and own research on site. High-ranking British officers illegally failed to pass on reports and warnings to the military police about the actions of a particular unit.
