LONDON: UK special forces commanders are facing allegations of destroying computer data in an attempt to conceal potential evidence of the killing of unarmed Afghan civilians, according to a report by The Times.
The alleged data deletion occurred prior to a visit by the Royal Military Police to the special forces headquarters in London, as part of a war crimes investigation.
The investigation was initiated following reports by The Sunday Times and BBC, which raised concerns that Special Air Service (SAS) units may have carried out unlawful killings of unarmed civilians in Afghanistan between 2010 and 2013. New evidence has emerged, indicating that rogue units were responsible for up to 80 unlawful killings during separate six-month tours in the country.
One of the cases under scrutiny involves Saifullah Yar, an Afghan national who filed a legal case against the Ministry of Defense. Yar claims that in 2011, four of his family members were shot dead in their home by the SAS after being handcuffed and hooded. These killings were among more than 50 incidents investigated by the Royal Military Police as part of Operation Northmoor, a probe into alleged war crimes that concluded in 2017 without any prosecutions.
UK Special Forces’ Unlawful Killings in Afghanistan
Lawyers representing Yar argue that the investigation’s closure was part of a broader cover-up of unlawful killings, starting with SAS units submitting false combat reports and planting weapons on civilians. Furthermore, it has been alleged that staff at the UK headquarters “permanently deleted an unknown quantity of data from that server shortly before Operation Northmoor investigators arrived” in direct defiance of an order to preserve computer data related to SAS activities in Afghanistan.
The Independent Inquiry Relating to Afghanistan is set to conduct preliminary hearings on Wednesday and Thursday. This inquiry aims to investigate the prevalence of unlawful killings committed by the SAS in Afghanistan and the subsequent Royal Military Police probe.
The Ministry of Defense has applied to allow military witnesses to provide evidence behind closed doors and to keep certain evidence classified. A spokesman for the MoD stated that it is not appropriate for them to comment on cases within the scope of the statutory inquiry and that the inquiry team, led by Lord Justice Haddon-Cave, will determine which allegations are subject to investigation.
