Inquiry to open into claims British soldiers summarily killed 80 Afghans

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Public inquiry into alleged actions of SAS units to begin amid victims’ families pleas for truth to be uncovered

 

A public inquiry into allegations that 80 Afghans were summarily killed by members of three different British SAS units begins on Monday amid pleas from victims’ families to uncover the truth behind the deaths.

Mansour Aziz, whose brother and sister-in-law were shot and killed while sleeping by British elite forces during a night raid on 6 August 2012, said he hoped the inquiry would establish why his home had been targeted.

 

Two of their children were also shot and injured, and Aziz said he and the surviving family members wanted “to know the truth”. In a statement released via his lawyers, he said: “We are asking for the court to listen to these children and bring justice.”

 

Leigh Day, the firm representing Aziz and other victims’ families, said that while there were Afghan news reports of civilians being killed or injured at the time, it was still not clear whether the incident was investigated internally by the SAS, then commanded by Gen Sir Mark Carleton-Smith, or the Royal Military Police.

Afghans were repeatedly found killed at or near their homes following night raids by the SAS, often after allegedly producing weapons when separated from their wider family by British soldiers. In five incidents, lawyers representing victims say the number shot dead exceeded the number of weapons found.

Despite years of concern about the incidents, the public inquiry was granted only late last year after years of legal challenges and investigative journalism, during a period in which some Conservative ministers had sought to dismiss the accusations.

Judicial review proceedings were brought by the Saifullah and Noorzai families in 2019 and 2020. They claimed that the deaths of their family members were a consequence of a policy of extrajudicial killings that were subsequently covered up by the SAS and in Whitehall.

 

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