A public inquiry into allegations that 80 Afghans have been summarily killed by members of three totally different British SAS models begins on Monday amid pleas from victims’ households to uncover the reality behind the deaths.
Mansour Aziz, whose brother and sister-in-law have been shot and killed whereas sleeping by British elite forces throughout an evening raid on 6 August 2012, mentioned he hoped the inquiry would set up why his dwelling had been focused.
Two of their kids have been additionally shot and injured, and Aziz mentioned he and the surviving relations needed “to know the reality”. In a press release launched through his legal professionals, he mentioned: “We’re asking for the court docket to hear to those kids and convey justice.”
Leigh Day, the agency representing Aziz and different victims’ households, mentioned that whereas there have been Afghan information studies of civilians being killed or injured on the time, it was nonetheless not clear whether or not the incident was investigated internally by the SAS, then commanded by Gen Sir Mark Carleton-Smith, or the Royal Army Police.
Afghans have been repeatedly discovered killed at or close to their properties following evening raids by the SAS, usually after allegedly producing weapons when separated from their wider household by British troopers. In 5 incidents, legal professionals representing victims say the quantity shot lifeless exceeded the variety of weapons discovered.
Regardless of years of concern concerning the incidents, the general public inquiry was granted solely late final yr after years of authorized challenges and investigative journalism, throughout a interval wherein some Conservative ministers had sought to dismiss the accusations.
Judicial evaluation proceedings have been introduced by the Saifullah and Noorzai households in 2019 and 2020. They claimed that the deaths of their relations have been a consequence of a coverage of extrajudicial killings that have been subsequently coated up by the SAS and in Whitehall.
4 members of the Saifullah household have been killed throughout an evening raid on 16 February 2011. One other member of the family mentioned in a brand new assertion that “we misplaced all the things” when the incident occurred, and that they’d had had nightmares ever since.
The day after the relations have been killed, an SAS sergeant main had described the episode as “the most recent bloodbath!” in an electronic mail revealed throughout the judicial evaluation, suggesting the episode was not an remoted incident.
“My household and I request the inquiry staff to offer us with the reality and clarify to us why and on what foundation we needed to undergo this cruelty,” mentioned the member of the family, whose id was withheld by their authorized staff.
The inquiry will begin with three days of opening statements, though giant sections will probably be performed with out the general public or press current due to official concern about revealing SAS identities and methods.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) won’t even acknowledge the involvement of the SAS itself throughout the public hearings, although the inquiry is specializing in allegations of massacres by SAS models working in Helmand province between 2010 and 2013.
As a substitute, following a ruling from presiding choose Lord Justice Haddon-Cave, it’ll refer solely to UK particular forces, a place arrived at after MoD functions for secrecy were rejected in the summertime.
Though it’s anticipated to run for a number of months, inquiry officers mentioned the choose or its authorized employees had no plans to attempt to go to Afghanistan, which has been beneath Taliban rule following the western withdrawal in August 2021.
Iain Overton, the manager director for Motion on Armed Violence, who has been concerned in investigating the allegations, mentioned efforts needs to be made to go to the nation or, given the potential difficulties, to at the very least join intently with it.
“The inquiry failing to go to Afghanistan is sort of a murder unit not visiting the homicide scene,” Overton mentioned. Journalists had been in a position to go to because the Taliban takeover, he mentioned, and whereas he acknowledged “an official go to is perhaps laborious to rearrange”, he mentioned the choose ought to at the very least “discover extra engaged methods of verifying these claims”.
The MoD mentioned it was absolutely dedicated to supporting the inquiry, which was arrange final December by the then defence secretary, Ben Wallace.
“It’s not acceptable for us to touch upon allegations which can be inside the scope of the statutory inquiry and it’s as much as the statutory inquiry staff, led by Lord Justice Haddon-Cave, to find out which allegations are investigated,” a spokesperson mentioned.