Panorama Special Forces I Saw War Crimes (12th May 2025)
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00:00Former British troops are about to break a code of silence.
00:14I've never spoken to anyone about it outside the guys who served on these ops.
00:23Not even my family.
00:27Their words are spoken by actors.
00:30They were totally off reservation in Iraq and Afghanistan.
00:36I saw it for myself.
00:41UK Special Forces were sent on countless dangerous missions.
00:48But eyewitnesses say some of their colleagues committed war crimes.
00:54Everyone knew what was going on.
00:56Everyone knew what was happening.
00:58People were murdered.
01:05It's the first time they've revealed what happened on the operations.
01:16The killings they witnessed.
01:18It was obvious these people had been shot in the back.
01:22They were clearly running away.
01:23And the executions, they say, happened in front of them.
01:31They handcuffed a young boy and shot him.
01:36He was clearly a child.
01:38Not even close to fighting age.
01:40It's the terrible secret the British state has been accused of covering up.
01:50These are murderers.
01:56They should all be locked up.
01:57They should all be locked up.
01:57They should all be locked up.
01:59They should all be locked up.
02:00They should all be locked up.
02:01But...
02:10THEY CONFER
02:22Helmand in southern Afghanistan.
02:26A place where British troops fought and died.
02:34Special Forces conducted hundreds of operations here.
02:38For the past seven years, Panorama has been investigating allegations of war crimes.
02:51We travelled to remote locations and were the first from the UK
02:55to visit the sites of suspicious killings.
03:00First, to meet the families of the dead.
03:03His hands were tied at the front. He had been killed.
03:09They had shot him in the corner of his eye,
03:11and later they had fired the shot at my father's chest.
03:15We found evidence of terrible crimes.
03:27The murder of unarmed men, women and children.
03:33They had shot the boys in the head.
03:43They were placed next to each other.
03:45You could see the wounds.
03:49Madam Deputy Speaker, I would like to make a statement.
03:59After years of disputing Panorama's findings, the Government made an announcement in 2022.
04:05My Right Honourable Friend, the Secretary of State for Defence, has commissioned an independent statutory inquiry to investigate and report on alleged unlawful activity by British Armed Forces during deliberate detention operations in Afghanistan.
04:24The public inquiry is investigating many of the SAS operations reported by Panorama, including a raid where eight men and a 14-year-old boy were killed.
04:47The SAS said they were targeting a Taliban commander and were fired on first.
04:54But the family say the men were unarmed and in bed.
04:58So these are the bullet holes?
05:00...
05:19...
05:24...
05:27We anticipate the evidence for the families will be that they were shot in bed,
05:38most likely when they were asleep.
05:42BBC Panorama visited the compound and spoke with Habibullah Ali Zai and filmed the compound.
05:50It was noted by those making the programme that all but one set of bullet clusters
05:55were less than 75 centimetres from the height of the floor.
06:03Now we have new evidence and it comes from British troops who were on the ground.
06:11Special Forces troops usually have a strict code of silence,
06:15but some of those who were on those missions have agreed to talk to us,
06:19to tell us what they saw.
06:25We've spoken to more than 30 sources who served with or alongside UK Special Forces.
06:36They don't want to be identified, so their words are spoken by actors.
06:43The squadron was keeping count of how many people were killed.
06:48Certain people in the squadron would keep count of how many they'd personally kill as well.
07:01If a target had popped up on the list two or three times before,
07:06then we'd go in with the intention of killing them.
07:08There was no attempt to capture them.
07:14Sometimes we'd check, we'd identify the target, confirm their ID and shoot them.
07:20Often, the squadron would just go and kill all the men they found there.
07:26Everyone knew what was going on.
07:28It's not scout camp, everyone knew what was happening.
07:30People were murdered.
07:34I'm not taking away from personal responsibility, but everyone knew.
07:38So there was implicit approval for what was happening.
07:42The more junior people in the squadron would be under instruction.
07:46He's not coming back to base with us,
07:48or this detainee makes sure he doesn't come off target.
07:56Afghanistan was a tough place to serve.
08:00Afghanistan was a tough place to serve.
08:02457 members of the UK's armed forces lost their lives,
08:08and thousands more were wounded.
08:11Special forces were there to protect them,
08:14but the regular troops weren't told what happened on the raids.
08:21One MP saw the aftermath for himself.
08:26He was serving with the regular army in Helmand.
08:30The helicopters would go in, and there would be the raid or whatever,
08:34and then the next morning, you'd often find half the village blaming you
08:37because an entire family had been killed.
08:42That happened very, very often.
08:43So that put the ground-holding troops, obviously,
08:45in a very difficult position,
08:46because, understandably, they've got very, very upset Afghan villagers
08:52and elders, and we don't know anything about it.
09:00The public inquiry is looking at alleged war crimes in Afghanistan
09:04between 2010 and 2013.
09:09Our evidence suggests they went on far longer.
09:13We've spoken to eyewitnesses who say the unlawful killings and executions
09:19took place over more than a decade.
09:22They say the military knew what was going on,
09:25but did nothing to stop the killings.
09:26It started in Iraq.
09:38British troops were part of a US-led invasion
09:42that removed Saddam Hussein in 2003.
09:45An insurgency followed,
09:51and the SAS hunted down those suspected of being involved.
10:03Right on the door for me.
10:04Right on the door.
10:09This is previously unseen footage of night raids,
10:13filmed by one SAS squadron in 2006.
10:35The video's an end-of-tour compilation.
10:43It shows they were already keeping a kill tally.
10:51It's a ridiculous metric.
10:54This just is a bad incentive.
10:59There's nothing good about that incentive.
11:00It's always going to lead to bad behaviors.
11:13We've spoken to those who served with the SAS in Iraq.
11:22There was one operation.
11:26I only became aware of it after the shooting,
11:28where the blokes had clearly executed a man.
11:32That was pretty clear from what I could glean
11:34that he posed no threat.
11:36He wasn't armed.
11:37It's disgraceful.
11:38No, there's no professionalism in that.
11:45He says the victim wasn't an insurgent.
11:48Mom!
11:50But it was never properly investigated.
11:56This problem started long before the SAS moved to Afghanistan,
12:00and senior commanders were aware of that.
12:02Not all killings in war are the same.
12:15Under both British and international law,
12:19troops shouldn't deliberately kill unarmed civilians
12:22or prisoners of war.
12:25It's cut and dry.
12:27A non-combatant can never be intentionally harmed in war.
12:32The line between a soldier and a murderer.
12:43The difference is that the soldier,
12:46when the soldier has to take another human life,
12:50he or she will do so according to a warrior's code.
12:58They kill according to the laws of armed conflict,
13:03the laws of war.
13:05We have to hold our soldiers to that standard.
13:13Our witnesses say the SAS had already developed a method
13:18of covering up unlawful killings in Iraq.
13:22They planted weapons, known as drop weapons,
13:25on the bodies of those they'd killed
13:27to make it look as if they were armed,
13:30and then took photos to justify the killings.
13:40Iraq was awash with drop weapons.
13:43You'd see it a lot.
13:46Too many reports of a gun being found
13:48by someone's left hand, things like that.
13:51I mean, it's a classic mistake
13:52if someone's planting a weapon.
13:55You knew it didn't stack up.
13:56It was widespread.
13:57We all knew what was happening.
13:59We've been told what the SAS did in Iraq,
14:09they did in Afghanistan.
14:13The eyewitnesses say they saw drop weapons
14:16being routinely used to cover up unlawful killings.
14:22Absolutely drop weapons were being used.
14:24There was a load of weapons
14:27that the guys had handed over to our guys
14:29by the previous squadron
14:31who'd been on deployment just before us.
14:34Some AKs and things like that
14:36that you could plant on a body.
14:39It took a little while for the officers
14:41to work out exactly what the squadron
14:43was up to on operations.
14:45But pretty soon, they could be in no doubt.
14:47You'd see a lot more folding stock AKs.
14:55Because of the way they're designed to fold,
14:58they were easier to carry in day sacks,
15:02easier to bring onto the targets
15:05and plant by the body,
15:06to make it look like the person
15:09was holding a rifle when they were shot.
15:11We'd had grenades that didn't detonate.
15:14They wouldn't go off.
15:24The public inquiry has only been looking
15:28at allegations about the SAS.
15:32We've been told the Navy Special Forces
15:35also committed war crimes in Afghanistan
15:38and used drop weapons to cover them up.
15:44Of the sources we've spoken to,
15:49more than 10 served with or alongside
15:51the Special Boat Service, or SBS.
15:57How did I know they were planted grenades?
15:59I saw the same ones in the SSE photos.
16:02The photos coming back from the ops,
16:03I was like, hang on, I've seen that before.
16:06One eyewitness says wounded Taliban fighters
16:13were routinely killed.
16:16On one operation, a guy had been shot,
16:20but he was still breathing.
16:21You know, shallow breaths.
16:24The medic was standing over him,
16:26treating his injury.
16:27He'd been shot a couple of times,
16:31but it wasn't life-threatening.
16:34Then one of our blokes came up to him,
16:38and there was a bang.
16:40We'd been shot in the head at point-blank range.
16:45And then the body was just lying there.
16:47Everyone found on target was killed on target,
16:55pretty much.
16:57I can't recall us taking a single injured insurgent
17:00back to base for treatment.
17:03They were shot.
17:05There and then.
17:05It was completely unnecessary.
17:16There's a right and a wrong way to act.
17:19These are not mercy killings.
17:22It's murder.
17:29The deliberate killing of wounded people
17:32not posing a threat
17:34would be a clear breach
17:36of international law.
17:39The eyewitnesses say
17:41SBS murders carried on after 2013,
17:45well beyond the years
17:46the inquiry is looking at.
17:50You could see from the photographs
17:52taken on site
17:53that the accounts being given
17:55by the SBS guys
17:57to justify certain killings
17:59just didn't add up.
18:02They say they've been caught
18:03in a fire fight
18:05but in the photos
18:06you'd see these were
18:07multiple clean headshots.
18:12One witness was a member
18:14of Afghan special forces
18:16who served alongside the SBS
18:18around 2020.
18:21There was one operation
18:24in a remote village.
18:26We were with the British mentors.
18:28We were divided into groups
18:32and searched the houses
18:33but we find nothing.
18:37Maybe we had the wrong target.
18:41I heard some shots fired
18:43from one of the houses.
18:45A boy about 13 or 14 years old
18:49was killed.
18:50I was told
18:52the British mentors
18:55killed him.
18:58I saw pictures of the boy
19:00the next day.
19:02They were
19:02very graphic.
19:07We were told
19:08by British mentors
19:10to destroy
19:11all the evidence
19:12about what happened
19:13that night.
19:13The suspicious killings
19:22on special forces raids
19:23created problems
19:25for the NATO-led coalition
19:26known as ISAF.
19:31The night raids
19:32and especially those
19:33that went wrong
19:34and generated reports
19:36of civilian casualties
19:37were a bonus
19:38to the Taliban.
19:39They would use that evidence
19:44and amplify it
19:46in their information campaign
19:48against the government
19:49and against the ISAF forces.
19:53So all in all
19:54it was a real negative
19:56for us
19:57and a positive
19:58for the Taliban.
20:03Special Forces squadrons
20:05were rotated.
20:07Each tour
20:07lasted six months.
20:09The killings peaked
20:14in 2010
20:15with the same squadron
20:17that kept a kill tally
20:18in Iraq.
20:23In Afghanistan
20:25that squadron
20:26killed an average
20:27of 2.7 people
20:29on every operation.
20:31Hundreds were killed.
20:40It was all about
20:40the starts.
20:42When the numbers
20:43were read out
20:43at the morning meeting
20:44at NATO headquarters
20:45they wanted the SAS task force
20:48to have high numbers.
20:49It was seen
20:50as a metric of success.
20:52It was operation
20:53after operation
20:54after operation
20:55going out
20:56every night.
20:56REAMS
21:02Our sources say
21:05the next squadron
21:05to arrive
21:06wanted to be
21:09that kill tally.
21:10Early on their tour, they killed a respected local man who'd served in the Afghan government.
21:21The SAS operational account said he'd grabbed a grenade after being detained.
21:30They handcuffed us and stood us against the wall. They handcuffed Haji Ibrahim too.
21:37They told Haji Ibrahim to go into the room because they wanted to search it.
21:42They told Haji Ibrahim to lift up the curtain.
21:45When he entered the room, there were shots.
21:48So, we knew Haji Ibrahim has been killed.
21:53His high-profile death led to direct complaints to the British from the Afghan president.
22:08But the killing didn't stop.
22:13We've been told this squadron also killed hundreds of people.
22:18On one operation, the troop had gone into the main part of the compound.
22:24It was a family of farmers.
22:27They shot the men in each of the rooms.
22:34Later, we were searching the bodies.
22:37One was quite an elderly man.
22:40This guy's family, the wailing, really distressed.
22:46They'd set the dog on him before they killed him.
22:50You could tell by the family's reaction and the look at the house.
22:56These were civilians.
23:08The witnesses say one member of the squadron personally killed dozens of people on the tour.
23:21It seemed like he was trying to get a kill on every operation.
23:32Every night, someone got killed.
23:36He was notorious in the squadron.
23:43He genuinely seemed like a psychopath.
23:51So the officer shot someone on the call out.
23:56And he told the officer not to shoot him again because he wanted to go and finish the wounded guy off with his knife.
24:04He wanted to, he wanted to, you know, blood his knife.
24:09I didn't see this, but I was told he would get more junior lads to hold someone down while he stabbed them.
24:24And not a, not a frenzied knife attack.
24:28Um, but it was clinical.
24:30Like, precise.
24:32Operational reports from the SAS say many detainees were shot after reaching for weapons.
24:45But our evidence suggests people were killed after surrendering and being handcuffed.
24:50There's nothing that justifies killing a person under control.
24:59They are now prisoners.
25:01They are out of the fight.
25:03To kill them would be murder.
25:05It can be an addictive thing to do.
25:19Kill someone.
25:22These blokes were intoxicated by that, that feeling of killing people.
25:26Some of the guys we killed genuinely were bad people.
25:33But they were taking pleasure in the brutality and the killing.
25:39Lots of psychotic murderers.
25:49On tour after tour, the Special Forces killings continued.
25:54One of the guys went in and shot a load of people in a row.
26:05They were sleeping.
26:07They were shot one after the other.
26:10I saw it with my own eyes.
26:13Right in front of me.
26:18They switched when they were out on ops.
26:21I saw the quietest guys switch.
26:26Show serious psychopathic traits.
26:29It's like a mob mentality.
26:32Felt like we were going back three, four hundred years.
26:36It was barbaric.
26:40I was totally prepared to shoot someone if they were shooting at me.
26:44I mean, that's different.
26:45They were lawless.
26:48Senior people were told about the killings, but they weren't stopped.
26:50We found evidence of a widespread cover-up lasting years.
27:00The cover-up started with Special Forces on the ground.
27:02It was continued by some of Britain's most senior military officers.
27:03And it was maintained by politicians and the Ministry of Defence.
27:07The eyewitnesses say official reports were falsified after unarmed people were killed.
27:11The main, the squadron was killed.
27:13In the main, the squadron was attacked by the military.
27:14with special forces on the ground it was continued by some of britain's most senior
27:19military officers and it was maintained by politicians and the ministry of defense
27:30the eyewitnesses say official reports were falsified after unarmed people were killed
27:36in the main the squadron was operating under card alpha you'd have to be acting in self-defense
27:45to justify a shooting that's why a lot of the reports are written like they are
27:54it's a fiction but they're written up to appear within the rules of engagement
27:59we understood how to write up serious incident reviews so they wouldn't trigger a referral to
28:10the military police if it looked like a shooting could represent a breach of the rules of conflict
28:17you'd get a phone call from the legal advisor or one of the staff officers in hq
28:23they'd pick you up on it they'd help you clarify the language do you remember someone making a sudden
28:28move oh yeah i do now that sort of thing it was built into the way we operated
28:38those watching the rates on live drone feeds say they were also pulled into the cover-up
28:48i was watching the operation as it was happening
28:52there was a heat patch from the thermal imaging where he was and then a muzzle flash
28:58the guy wasn't armed he was caring there was no suggestion he was posing any sort of threat
29:06afterwards i was asked to see if i could dig up anything that connected him to the taliban
29:11there was a real bad operation where there was a slippage in time where our air assets the i star no
29:18longer had visuals on the vehicle we were tracking we lost coverage they thought they had spotted the
29:24the same vehicle but we were concerned the details didn't add up the guys on the ground went ahead
29:29anyway the operations happened and an entire family's been killed
29:36later on from the information we got it looks pretty sure that they got the wrong vehicle
29:42the intelligence officer says after the raid the paperwork was falsified
29:53i know for a fact that report was a lie the details were changed so it looked like everything was done
29:59by the book that we never lost sight of the target they'd lied on the report none of the information about
30:07them getting the wrong vehicle was divulged and i was told to keep some about it in my head that's red flags going off
30:22evidence from military sources and documents shows very senior officers were warned about potential war crimes
30:30by law they're supposed to report suspicions of serious offenses to the military police
30:40they didn't do that
30:43panorama has previously revealed they include some of the most high-ranking officers in the armed forces
30:51former second in command of the british military general seguin jenkins
30:56the former head of the british army general sir mark carlton smith and the former head of uk special
31:05forces lieutenant general jonathan page it's the responsibility of an officer coming into possession
31:14of information relating to a crime of this gravity to report it immediately to the royal military police
31:22it's not a matter of discretion it's a matter of obligation under the law do you think we could
31:28see we could still see prosecutions of senior military figures because of the way that they
31:34behaved is that possible do you think when i was director of service prosecutions if i ever
31:40had evidence there would have been no question i would have directed a prosecution
31:44lawyers acting for general carlton smith told us the allegations are entirely groundless none of his
31:52senior commanders produced any evidence of unlawful killings in afghanistan and there was no allegation
32:00or evidence that he was aware of to refer to the rmp
32:03we wrote to general jenkins and lieutenant general page they didn't comment
32:23british special forces killed many hundreds of people on night raids
32:28some were undoubtedly taliban fighters but the afghan families we've spoken to say their relatives were
32:38civilians not insurgents one family had four people killed in an sas raid in 2011
32:51they tied his hands in front of me if you have tied someone's hands how can they fight
32:58they fight against the british government in 2019. it was a crucial case for the british government
33:03the family took legal action against the british government in 2019. it was a crucial case
33:28but it was almost stopped in its tracks by false evidence from the mod
33:38the court was looking at the way the british state investigated the deaths of the four afghan nationals
33:46the ministry of defense didn't disclose the fact that internal concerns had been expressed
33:52about the activities of the units involved in the operation three members of the mod's legal team had to
34:01apologize for the court being misled
34:04the case was put on hold when the public inquiry started but the failure to fully investigate went higher still
34:21we've been told the then british prime minister was repeatedly warned about civilians being killed on night raids
34:37one of our sources was present when david cameron met the afghan president in 2011
34:42who was at the meeting who was at the meeting prime minister and has advisors and foreign minister
34:50from british sides and from our sides president karzai foreign minister myself and did um president
34:58karzai say civilians are being killed on night raids repeatedly repeatedly he mentioned that
35:10can there be any doubt that david cameron was told that uk special forces had killed civilians
35:18i cannot believe that i cannot believe that is any doubt and what did david cameron say
35:26they assure us that is accidentally but they will talk again and mark on it
35:36president karzai was so consistent with his complaints about night raids civilian casualties and
35:43detentions that there was no senior western diplomat or military leader who would have missed the fact
35:52that this was a major irritant for him and increasingly over time a significant political problem
35:58despite the repeated warnings the suspicious killings continued if he did go up to those levels and
36:16nothing was done which would really surprise me then that's reprehensible you need to know how far the rock went up
36:25we wrote to lord cameron his spokesperson told us that to the best of lord cameron's recollection
36:35the issues raised by president karzai were with reference to isaf in general
36:42and that specific incidents with respect to uk special forces were not raised
36:47he also said any suggestion lord cameron colluded in covering up allegations of serious criminal wrongdoing
36:56is total nonsense
37:06the evidence of the
37:19the evidence shows how the british government undermined a murder investigation run from a cornish military base
37:23operation north moore which was based here at raf st morgan in cornwall was run by the royal military
37:29police it was set up in 2014 and it was a team of detectives looking at allegations
37:36against uk forces including dozens of suspicious killings on night raids
37:49so operation north moore was looking at 52 suspected murders
37:54mod documents show the government sent in two advisors who took control the government was
38:04effectively directing what should have been an independent investigation
38:11i guess i would liken it to you've got a murder that's happened in london somewhere and the metropolitan
38:18police are investigating and the government of the day decides that they're going to put some external
38:23advisers into that police investigation well everyone would look at that and go that's completely ridiculous
38:28and that appears to be what's happened here
38:35mod documents show the advisors then sent in a review team who stopped the rmp from pursuing key leads
38:45detectives wanted to seize the main sas computer server holding messages and operational records
38:53and they were ordered to recover the data set amicably instead
39:02the detectives asked special forces for an assurance that no data is changed modified or deleted before the
39:10handover special forces agreed but then data was permanently deleted and the server was never handed over
39:23and the moment one gets to be told things like that one starts to get suspicious
39:29i certainly would have challenged any attempt to deny investigators access to that material
39:38if you destroy it knowing that it is required for the purposes of investigation
39:44then uh if all that can be proved you are doing an act which has a tendency to pervert the course of public justice
39:53which is a common law offense and carries extremely serious penalties
39:59there was more interference with another crucial strand of evidence video footage
40:18the eyewitnesses say special forces raids were filmed
40:21we'd never go out on a job without istar one of the air assets would stream footage back to at least
40:30one of the ops rooms if an officer is not out on the ground they can watch what's happening
40:35there are big screens showing the operation unfolding
40:40my understanding is that the feed coming into the ops room the footage of the operation was all recorded
40:46when i was there absolutely the rule was no operation would happen without eyes in the sky they had to have eyes in the sky
40:58this man was in a unique position johnny mercer served alongside special forces in afghanistan
41:06and later became a defense minister in the conservative government
41:10he knew sas raids were filmed and asked about the footage of the suspect raids
41:19he told the inquiry the then director of special forces said it wasn't available
41:27general roland walker is now head of the british army
41:32i said to him where is this stuff i remember he leant back and went like that
41:36so apart from leaning back and apparently shrugging his shoulders and holding his hands out
41:44did he offer any explanation to you as to where this material was it's not available johnny
41:50did you press him on that i made clear to him that um it wasn't plausible it was not a plausible
41:58explanation to me so your take back to the secretary of state was that having been tasked by him
42:06to get to the bottom of this you could not agree with what you were being told and you wouldn't sign
42:12off on it as accurate correct i think my words were something stinks
42:18we wrote to general walker he didn't respond
42:25panorama has discovered operation northmore did obtain some raf drone footage of special forces raids
42:32but the rmp couldn't view it because of a software problem we've been told that a ministry of defense
42:41contractor came here in 2019 to help the royal military police the expert contractor said they
42:48could supply software that would allow the detectives to review the footage but the rmp never took up the
42:55offer and that crucial footage was never watched
43:03and now we know why
43:08high court documents reveal that direction was given that it was no longer appropriate or proportionate
43:15to continue with this line of inquiry
43:18just to be clear rmp detectives were told it's not appropriate or proportionate to look at video
43:26evidence that might show murders
43:36in 2019 operation northmore was closed
43:39the government said the war crimes allegations had been fully investigated
43:49even though the video footage hadn't been viewed and the computer server hadn't been seized
43:58the reputation of our services is at stake here we need to be seen to be on the front foot
44:06in taking it seriously and investigating it and rooting out the problem but did we see that no we didn't
44:13so i i i have been constantly surprised to read the official statements that have been coming out
44:21from various quarters within the ministry of defense
44:25the defense minister johnny mercer agreed to announce the closure of northmore
44:38but he was still concerned he now believes terrible crimes may have been committed in afghanistan
44:50johnny mercer told the inquiry there was credible evidence that war crimes had been
44:54committed he said he was given detailed accounts by british and afghan special forces some told him
45:02detainees had been executed including handcuffed children
45:10we have not just hearsay or rumor there is first-hand evidence of allegations of the most serious kind
45:18correct correct and to be clear these are allegations of straight murder
45:25yes
45:27if true i have absolutely nothing in common with these individuals and uh uh i totally uh reject um
45:35their behavior
45:35i remain very concerned particularly around the killing of children
45:43whatever happened on these operations kids ended up dead
45:47and people are saying they don't remember what happened
45:53one of our eyewitnesses says he saw child executions on sas raids
45:59they handcuffed a young boy and shot him he was clearly a child not even close to fighting age
46:16i couldn't believe what they were doing there's no justification for that
46:22there's not any kind of advantage to killing children
46:30this didn't just happen once
46:36these were kids
46:42the mod says it urges all veterans with relevant information to come forward to the afghan inquiry
46:49it says it's fully committed to supporting the independent inquiry
46:56and that it's not appropriate for the mod to comment on allegations which may be within its scope
47:12our evidence suggests a cover-up may be continuing
47:19of the united states
47:21it concerns the afghan special forces who served alongside the british
47:27they're known as the triples and they were on the night race
47:35we told the british we could not support their operations if they continued to kill civilians
47:41all the time we were having meetings with the british and telling them they needed to be careful
47:50they were often alongside our special operations forces operating night after night after night at a
47:55very high tempo across the country so they proved uh indispensable the afghan special forces were the
48:04best of the best uh and uh very well trained very well equipped and frankly those who typically fought
48:11until the very end uh in august of 2021
48:26when the americans withdrew from afghanistan there was panic
48:31afghans who'd worked with nato forces feared for their lives
48:35the british government had set up a scheme to allow eligible triples to come to the uk
48:47but almost all the applications were turned down that's thousands of people
48:52some of those rejected triples have been hunted down by the taliban
49:01we heard some of our triple already killed by taliban some of them is on the jail at the moment
49:11on in taliban prison
49:15some of them they are already disabled by by taliban they are breaking their hand their leg their head
49:23and they are not included
49:25panorama revealed last year why the afghan triples were turned away
49:33uk special forces had a secret veto over their applications
49:38the government initially denied it saying no such mechanism exists
49:49we've now obtained a letter that proves they knew about the veto all along
49:55minister johnny mercer had already warned senior colleagues the veto posed a significant conflict of
50:02interest that should be obvious to all as it allowed special forces to have decision-making power over
50:10people who were potential witnesses to the afghan inquiry
50:17it looks like another cover-up some of the afghans refused entry say they were eyewitnesses to unlawful
50:24killings but the inquiry can't compel them to give evidence if they're not in the country
50:29i was very disappointed after receiving my rejection you know we fought together against terrorists in
50:39the most difficult and and dangerous operations but after leaving afghanistan the british special forces
50:48easily forgot about all of us even when we needed their approval for asylum now they rejected us
50:59they were the people we had worked shoulder to shoulder with risked our lives with everything is clear now
51:10they don't want us in the uk because of what we have witnessed
51:19we can now reveal the veto process was overseen by one of those senior officers who failed to report
51:26evidence of war crimes to the military police general seguin jenkins
51:34he was responsible for people being turned away some were tortured and executed
51:47this is another aspect of the cover-up the triples had evidence
51:52of these killings they served alongside british special forces and i simply can't for the life of
52:00me understand why the special forces were given a veto as to whether their refugee status would be
52:06accepted stopping the afghan soldiers who served with the uk special forces gaining refugee status is
52:13just another way of obscuring the evidence
52:24the government is now reassessing 2 000 triples applications hundreds of those rejections have
52:31already been overturned and in a crucial court case next week hundreds of others will find out if
52:37their cases will be reviewed for someone is too late they are already touched by taliban they are
52:48already killed by talib who do you blame for the fact that they were trapped in afghanistan i think
52:54as acs if those people is stopped them do you think it's because of the public inquiry
53:01yes definitely that's only only reason hopefully british government investigate that
53:09the mod responded on general jenkins behalf it says there's no evidence any part of the mod tried to
53:18prevent former triples giving evidence to the inquiry it says anyone can provide evidence no matter where in
53:26the world they are the mod remains fully committed to delivering on its pledge to relocate eligible afghans
53:35to the uk and each application is decided on its own merits in line with uk immigration rules
53:46it says parliamentary statements have been made in good faith and it would be inappropriate to comment
53:52further due to ongoing litigation the eyewitnesses in this program haven't given evidence to the inquiry
54:13some fear they could face repercussions for talking to the inquiry
54:18others worry it won't get to the truth
54:26but they've spoken to us because they want the public to know what they saw
54:32some were shot while they were running away they were suspected to have a weapon
54:37not all were found with the weapon though i saw the sse photos you could clearly see people
54:43have been shot in the back once everything was under control as we were moving through an area or compound
54:51number of the guys would shoot anyone who was on the ground as they were advancing through
54:58neutralizing and moving forward
55:02it was expected not hidden everyone knew
55:07and some ops the troop would go into guest house type buildings and kill everyone there
55:22they'd go in and shoot everyone sleeping there on entry
55:27it's not justified
55:30killing people in their sleep
55:37in some squadrons in particular there were some key individuals they were a bunch of murdering
55:44bastards from long back there's no other way to describe them
55:54i witnessed some of the stuff that was happening a lot of people being killed
55:59they were clearly running away they were shot in the back of the head
56:07the guys from the squadron were regularly killing detainees they'd become routine
56:14they'd search someone handcuff them then shoot them they'd cut off the handcuffs and plant a pistol
56:29and then by officers above them
56:41i'm talking here about the allegations that they captured civilians plastic cuffed them took them back
56:48inside the building there shot and killed them sometimes killed a sleeping person lying in bed
56:56those things are just plain murder
57:05the ministry of defense stands accused of a cover-up lasting years
57:14and shutting down a murder investigation before it could get to the truth
57:19at times you could describe the way the ministry of defense acts as anti-democratic in the way they
57:30sort of circle the wagons deny everything and then only release information when they're absolutely
57:36forced to
57:36we're bound by the same rules as everyone else in the military
57:49these are murderers they should all be locked up
57:54i serve with great people in afghanistan but you can't let murderers get away with it
58:06so
58:14so
58:18so
58:24so