The BBC “Panorama” show has produced a documentary with a compilation of the war crimes of the U.K. Special Forces (which includes the SAS (Air) and SBS (Naval) Special Forces, and several supporting regiments) in Afghanistan and Iraq, based on whistleblowers’ testimony and videos. BBC reports that, “Former members of U.K. Special Forces have broken years of silence to give BBC Panorama eyewitness accounts of alleged war crimes committed by colleagues in Iraq and Afghanistan. Giving their accounts publicly for the first time, the veterans described seeing members of the SAS murder unarmed people in their sleep and execute handcuffed detainees, including children.
“Killing of detainees ‘became routine,’” the veteran said. “They’d search someone, handcuff them, then shoot them,” before cutting off the plastic handcuffs used to restrain people and “planting a pistol” by the body, he said. The new testimony includes allegations of war crimes stretching over more than a decade, far longer than the three years currently being examined by a judge-led public inquiry in the U.K.
A veteran who served with the SBS said some troops had a “mob mentality,” describing their behavior on operations as “barbaric.” “I saw the quietest guys switch, show serious psychopathic traits,” he said. “They were lawless. They felt untouchable.”
The testimony, from more than 30 people who served with or alongside U.K. Special Forces, builds on years of reporting by BBC Panorama into allegations of extrajudicial killings by the SAS. BBC also reports that then-Prime Minister David Cameron, “was repeatedly warned during his tenure that U.K. Special Forces were killing civilians in Afghanistan,” including by Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
