An investigation into British special forces operations in Afghanistan has uncovered images described as “substantial evidence” showing soldiers possibly executing unarmed people who were sleeping.
For the first time, the investigation made it possible for the public to view photographs taken of victims during two SAS operations. The photographs show a number of people in their beds with gunshot wounds to the head.
Oliver Glasgow, the lead lawyer in the investigation, indicated that these images may constitute evidence of possible war crimes, and require careful examination by experts.
The public investigation is examining allegations that members of the Special Forces killed unarmed civilians and detainees during night raids that took place between 2010 and 2013, and planted weapons next to the victims to cover up the killings.
Shocking pictures show a number of defenseless people in their beds.
In one photo, a person appears covered in a floral-patterned blanket, while others appear with their heads on pillows, with blood pooling around their heads. Bloodstains also appear on a low part of the wall in one of the photos, which is consistent with the hypothesis that the person was shot while lying down.
Glasgow explained that many of the victims "appear to have been shot in the head," and in some cases "the body of a person appears with his head resting on a pillow."
He added that additional analysis could help confirm whether these people "were shot while they were sleeping."
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Seventeen people were killed during the two operations carried out in Helmand Province in 2011. The youngest victims in both operations were 15 and 14 years old, respectively.
Glasgow stated that the photos seemed to contradict the accounts provided by the SAS forces, and were supposed to raise serious questions among the military police officers who investigated these operations as possible murders.
For his part, Lieutenant Colonel John Harvey, who led the military police investigation into these killings, acknowledged that the images “did not look normal.”
Harvey informed the investigating committee that his team was fully convinced that these photos could constitute extremely important evidence.
Despite repeated requests by police investigators to subject the photos to further examination, this never happened.
In a statement to the BBC, one of the investigators, who requested to remain anonymous, said: “The reasons for our concern were clear,” adding: “The presence of bullet marks on the walls at a very low level from the ground seemed to refute the account given by the Special Forces about what happened.”
He stated that "the photographs are currently subject to careful forensic analysis by experts as part of the ongoing investigation."
The BBC's Panorama program has worked for more than eight years to investigate allegations that British Special Air Forces executed unarmed civilians and children. Following the revelations made by the programme, a public investigation was opened in 2022.
These photos appear to support the findings of the investigation conducted by the “Panorama” program in 2022 into raids that took place in Helmand province a decade ago.
The "Panorama" team had traveled to Afghanistan to collect evidence related to four home raids, which resulted in the deaths of 26 people.
The BBC visited the same guest houses where the photos revealed by the investigation were taken on Tuesday. Members of the Panorama team were the first British investigators to visit the sites of the shootings, despite a five-year military police investigation.
Official Special Forces accounts of these incidents claim that Taliban militants opened fire on British forces as they entered residential compounds, forcing Special Air Forces members to return fire, which led to the deaths of those inside.
However, weapons experts told the BBC that evidence collected by the "Panorama" program indicated that many of the shots appeared to have been fired from above.
This indicates that the victims were either lying or sitting leaning against the wall, and were not in the midst of an armed clash.
Family members of the victims also told the "Panorama" program that the dead were shot directly in the head or chest, a common feature of deliberate killings carried out by special air forces at close range.
According to the lead lawyer in the investigation, the photographs revealed show severe head or facial injuries sustained by the people who were killed by SAS members.
The Investigative Committee also heard evidence that raised questions about the seriousness of the investigations conducted into alleged war crimes.
It emerged that investigators were still in Afghanistan in July 2019 collecting evidence, at a time when senior officers were preparing to close the investigation into the murders and report back to ministers.
Military police investigators were searching for eyewitnesses to unlawful killings and the planting of weapons at the scene.
In this context, a member of the partner Afghan unit, which participated in the operations alongside the British Special Air Forces, reported to the military police that he saw a British soldier placing a rifle next to an unarmed person after he was killed.
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