Detainees executed, unarmed civilians killed in their sleep, a child, handcuffed and shot, all covered up by the chain of command – this is the testimony of more than 30 eyewitnesses, former members of UK Special Forces who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, and have at last chosen to speak out.
The UK Special Forces air and boat services were at the centre of the allegations in Panorama – Special Forces: I Saw War Crimes. The programme reported a series of cold-blooded murders by UK military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan over a period of ten years, followed by years of official cover-up.
According to the revelations killings of detainees had ‘become routine’. One veteran spoke of plastic handcuffs being removed from those executed and replaced with weapons in order to stage ‘evidence’ that the Afghan civilians were fighters and insurgents.
One veteran told how special forces soldiers displayed ‘barbaric and psychopathic’ behaviour. He said they acted as though they were could do whatever they liked and knew would get away with it, ‘They were lawless. They felt untouchable.’
Another suggested that the murder of Afghans became ‘addictive’ with soldiers becoming ‘intoxicated’ by the killings. An SAS operator was accused of slitting the throat of a wounded man purely to ‘blood his knife’.
‘On some operations, the troops would go into guesthouse-type buildings and kill everyone there,’ one veteran said. ‘They’d go in and shoot everyone sleeping there, on entry. It’s not justified, killing people in their sleep.’
Squadrons reportedly kept kill counts, competing among each other. Seriously wounded Afghans became prime targets, a crime in international law. One veteran spoke of a former soldier whose goal was to achieve a kill on every operation, and became notorious for the number of people he killed.
These were not isolated incidents, but part of a pattern. The execution of Iraqis had failed to be seriously investigated, regardless of reports to senior officers. From Iraq into Afghanistan the Special Forces were immune from the law.
Apparently ‘everyone knew’ in the chain of command what was happening, and officers allegedly regularly falsified post operation reports. The reports, ‘they a were fiction’ a soldier claimed, written to avoid scrutiny, and legal advisors were used to help frame a convincing narrative.
Panorama exposed how the cover-up went right to the top, with David Cameron, then Prime Minister, repeatedly informed that British forces were killing civilians. Even Afghan President Hamid Karzai raised concerns with the British PM about the actions of the UK elite forces in his country. Cameron’s spokesperson denied the former PM covered up any such criminal behaviour, saying the suggestions were ‘total nonsense’.
The Panorama team also revealed that General Sir Gwyn Jenkins, leader of the UK Special Forces in Afghanistan who failed to report evidence of the extrajudicial killings, later oversaw visa applications of Afghan commandos who served with his elite regiments, notably in units known as the Triples.
Thousands of visa applications were rejected, denying the possibility of the former Afghan commandos being called as witnesses in the public inquiry into SAS Afghan war crimes.
Emails and evidence from within the MoD, obtained by Panorama, suggest that Gen. Jenkins appointed a senior officer to oversee civil servants working on the Afghan resettlement scheme, giving them instructions to reject Triples applications. Concerns about the involvement of the Special Forces into the veto of Triples applications were raised in January 2024 by Cabinet ministers and hundreds of applicants have since had their rejections reviewed and overturned – too late for the inquiry.
And what’s happened to Gen. Jenkins? Having been accused of ignoring evidence and failing to report systemic killings by those under his commend, then of blocking the evacuation of Afghan personnel in case they gave evidence against UK Special Forces, he was appointed chief strategic adviser to Defence Secretary John Healey. And now, on the day following the exposé by Panorama, he was promoted to First Sea Lord. According to Defence Secretary Healey the general is ‘a proven leader with a distinguished career in both the military and at the core of government’.
The chilling testimonies of corruption, murder, torture and cover-up revealed by Panorama must be taken seriously. The perpetrators and those responsible for ignoring evidence and refusing to investigate, whoever they are and regardless of how elevated they have become, must be held to account.
Panorama – Special Forces: I Saw War Crimes is available on BBC iPlayer from 12 May 2025 for 11 months.