The allegations date back a decade, when British troops were still fighting the Taliban alongside allies in Afghanistan. The BBC obtained detailed military reports of SAS night raids and revealed a “pattern of strikingly similar reports of Afghan men being shot dead for pulling AK-47 rifles or grenades behind furniture after being captured”. It found that 54 people were killed in suspicious circumstances by one SAS unit in Helmand between 2010 and 2011. The death toll raised alarm among senior officers, who worried about a “deliberate policy” of illegal killing. However, there are suggestions that key information was not shared with the Royal Military Police. Two years later – in 2013 – the director of special forces, General Sir Mark Carleton-Smith, reportedly did not disclose to the RMP, which was investigating raids carried out on that tour, any of the previous concerns about unlawful killings or the existence of a rare criticism of fate. General Carleton-Smith, who declined to comment to the BBC, became army chief before resigning last month. In 2014, the RMP launched Northmoor, a wide-ranging investigation into 675 alleged crimes in Afghanistan, including a number of killings by the SAS squadron. Six years later, Northmoor closed. No British soldiers faced prosecution. However, investigators told the BBC they were hampered by the British military in their efforts to gather evidence – which may explain why there was not enough evidence to charge anyone. At the time, Johnny Mercer, the minister for veterans’ affairs, blamed human rights lawyers for making claims against the Department of Defense. Allegations of death and treachery never died down. Instead of addressing the message, the Foreign Office shot the messenger, claiming the BBC had reached “unwarranted” conclusions. There is prima facie evidence that British soldiers have committed war crimes in Afghanistan. This is not surprising given that in 2020 the international criminal court found evidence that British troops committed war crimes in Iraq. The Foreign Office then breathed a sigh of relief as the ICC declined to prosecute. But the country need not reserve justice only for its enemies. Efforts to pursue claims in court have created a hostile environment for remedies. The UK government tried to make it almost impossible to prosecute war crimes with legislation last year. Labor did not do enough to oppose this bill. Despite its history of upholding the laws of war, the UK was reluctant to prosecute its own personnel. This suggests that British ministers believe that foreign lives do not matter. Other nations have faced the brutal fact that their soldiers have committed atrocities. The first step in doing this would be for Britain, like Australia, to set up a statutory war crimes inquiry led by judges.
