UK forces shot dead unarmed Afghan men in ‘cold blood’: Report

LONDON: Commandos in Britain’s elite Special Air Service (SAS) corps killed at least 54 Afghans in suspicious circumstances but the military chain of command concealed concerns, a BBC investigation said Tuesday.

Unarmed Afghan men were routinely shot dead “in cold blood” by SAS troops during night-time raids during the long war, and weapons were planted on them to justify the crimes, the four-year probe found.

Senior officers, including General Mark CarletonSmith, who headed UK Special Forces at the time, were aware of concerns within the SASbut failed to report them to military police, it said.

Under UK law governing the armed forces, it is a criminal offence for a commanding officer to fail to inform the military police if they become aware of potential war crimes, the BBC noted.

Carleton-Smith, who retired last month as head of the British army, declined to comment to the BBC programme “Panorama”, which said its probe was based on court documents, leaked emails and its own journalists’ travel to sites of the operations in Afghanistan. The ministry of defence said prior probes found insufficient evidence to bring charges. “No new evidence has been presented, but the police will consider any allegations should new evidence come to light,” it said.