Senior United Kingdom special forces leaders covered up potential war crimes in Afghanistan, a former senior officer has told a public inquiry.
The former high-ranking officer alleged that two former directors of Britain’s special forces failed to act on claims that soldiers unlawfully killed civilians in Afghanistan while operating there more than 10 years ago, according to evidence released on Monday.
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The whistleblower’s testimony alleged that commanders at the highest levels knew about suspected executions as early as 2011, but chose to bury the claims rather than report them to military police.
The evidence suggests the inaction allowed the killings to continue for at least two more years, raising questions about accountability within one of the world’s best training and lethal military units.
The officer, identified only as N1466 to protect his true identity, was among the most senior figures in UK special forces.
He told the inquiry he handed over what he described as “explosive” evidence pointing to criminal conduct by Special Air Service (SAS) troops operating in the country.
N1466 said he first grew concerned in early 2011 after reviewing reports from Afghanistan that showed an alarming pattern.
During one raid, nine Afghan men were killed, but only three weapons were recovered. The officer also heard that soldiers had been boasting during training about killing all fighting-age males during operations, irrespective of what threat they posed.
The whistleblower said he passed his findings to the director of special forces, making clear there was strong potential for criminal behaviour.
But instead of alerting investigators, the director ordered an internal review of tactics that N1466 dismissed as “a little fake exercise” designed to give the appearance of action while suppressing the truth.
When a second director took charge in 2012, the lethal pattern of behaviour wasn’t arrested.
That same year, two young parents were shot dead in their bed during a night raid in Nimruz province. Their infant sons, sleeping beside them, were also shot and seriously wounded. The incident was not reported to police.
N1466 said he eventually went to military police himself in 2015, but expressed deep regret at not acting sooner.
“Those people who died unnecessarily from that point onwards, there were two toddlers shot in their bed next to their parents, all that would not necessarily have come to pass” if the allegations had been properly handled, he said.
The investigation is examining whether around 80 Afghan civilians were unlawfully killed by British forces between 2010 and 2013.
It was launched in 2023 after a BBC documentary revealed that one SAS squadron had killed 54 people in suspicious circumstances during just six months.
Johnny Mercer, the UK’s former veterans minister, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Monday that the process through which this information was coming to light “has to be done fairly”.
“We’re not going to get there by selectively releasing bits of commentary that fit a certain narrative,” Mercer said.
President Trump has urged Israel to maintain a “strong and genuine” dialogue with Syria, adding that it is crucial that “nothing interferes with Syria’s development into a prosperous state.”
Following Israel’s most recent incursion and strike on Syria, which the newly formed government of President Ahmed al-Sharaa decried as a “war crime,” the statement on Truth Social on Monday came days after the country’s fledgling government of President Ahmed al-Sharaa decried the attack as a “war crime.”
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Trump’s latest operation in a string of operations since Israel’s expansion of its military presence in Syria’s south following Bashar al-Assad’s overthrow in December of last year did not specifically mention the Israeli incursion.
Trump praised the new Syrian government under al-Sharaa, which has pledged to bring the country together after years of civil unrest that fueled sectarian dissention.
He declared, “The United States is very pleased with the outcomes in the Country of Syria that have been achieved with great determination and hard work.”
“We are doing everything in our power to ensure that the Syrian government continues to pursue its substantial goals of creating a true and prosperous nation.”
Trump also referred to al-Sharaa as the regional force promoting regional stability.
Ahmed al-Sharaa, the country’s new president, is diligently working to ensure that positive things happen and that Israel and Syria will continue to cooperate in a productive relationship.
Benjamin Netanyahu had reportedly phoned the Israeli prime minister shortly after Trump took office.
Trump had invited Netanyahu for a White House visit “in the near future,” according to the statement, which did not specify whether the two had discussed Syria.
conversations that are ambiguous
Trump hosted former al-Qaeda leader Al-Sharaa at the White House last month, and he announced in November that direct negotiations have already begun between his administration and Israel regarding a security deal.
However, critics have accused Israel of carrying out a number of recent actions that would undermine any chances of reestablishing ties, including a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Syrian territory that Israel had occupied after al-Assad’s ascension.
Israel launched an incursion in Beit Jinn last week, claiming it was attempting to kill members of the Muslim Brotherhood’s al-Jamaa al-Islamiya branch in Lebanon. The organization has disputed that it has operations outside of Lebanon.
Israel launched airstrikes that resulted in 13 fatalities, including two children, when the community reacted.
Israel “with brutal and deliberate shelling,” according to Syria’s foreign ministry.
The United States has signed a new trade agreement with the UK that eliminates all pharmaceutical and medical products and changes how the country values drugs. This is the first significant spending increase in more than 20 years.
The state-run National Health Service (NHS) will spend at least the next three years on treatments for at least 25 percent more in accordance with the deal announced on Monday.
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US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer stated in a statement that the US and the UK have agreed to set up negotiated outcome pricing for novel pharmaceuticals. This will encourage investment and innovation in both nations.
According to the USTR statement, the UK will increase the cost of new medicines by 25% under the agreement. In exchange, any future Section 301 country tariffs on products made in the UK, including pharmaceuticals, drug ingredients, and medical technology, would be exempt from the so-called Section 232 sectoral tariffs.
According to two sources with knowledge of the deal, the value appraisal process at the UK government body NICE, which determines the cost-effectiveness of new drugs for the NHS, had to be significantly altered.
The upper threshold is $30,000 ($39,789) per year for a patient under NICE’s “quality-adjusted life year,” which measures the cost of a treatment for each healthy year.
As part of his campaign to bring the costs of US medicines more in line with those of other wealthy nations, US President Donald Trump has pressed UK and rest of Europe to pay more for them.
The UK’s tough operating environment has drawn criticism from the pharmaceutical sector, and some big companies, including AstraZeneca, the largest by market value on the London Stock Exchange, have canceled or halted investment there.
The implementation of a voluntary pricing system, which allows businesses to return a portion of sales to the NHS to the government, has been a source of conflict between the sector and the government.
The UK’s office for USTR claimed that the rebate rate would go down to 15% in 2026.
“Advanced medicines”
Life sciences companies will be encouraged to continue investing and innovating in the UK thanks to a new pharmaceutical agreement signed by the UK’s Liz Kendall, the minister of science and technology, on Monday.
Our world-leading UK companies keep developing the treatments that can transform lives, Kendall said in a statement. “This vital deal will ensure UK patients receive the cutting-edge medicines they need sooner.”
Additionally, Kendall added, “It will encourage and spur life sciences companies to keep investing and developing right here in the UK.”
Bristol Myers Squibb is one of those businesses. The deal allows the pharmaceutical industry to invest more than $500 million over the next five years, according to the CEO of the company.
Gaza Strip’s Deir el-Balah – Samar al-Salmi and her family experienced a new disaster as a result of the first heavy rains of the winter season.
As their tired tent in a displacement camp was torn down in the morning, torrents of water slammed into the ground beneath them, bringing them to a murky pool.
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Refugited people crowded all around them, attempting to repair what the rain had destroyed, sanding the flooded areas and bringing soaked mattresses into the cold winter sun.
The timing was incomparably bad for 35-year-old Samar.
She is about to give birth, and everything she has got ready for her daughter was wet.
As you can see, the baby’s clothes were completely covered in mud, she says, lifting tiny garments that had brown stains on them. “Everything I prepared was submerged, including the milk formula box and the diapers,” the statement continued.
In Deir el-Balah, where her mother and her siblings reside, Samar, her husband, and their three children reside. Due to Israel’s genocidal war against Gaza, they have all been driven out of their homes in Tal al-Hawa, southwest of Gaza City.
Samar says, “My voice almost breaks,” and she can’t even describe how she feels right now. My mind is going to freeze up, I feel. How is my baby girl supposed to greet me in this manner?
Samar and her husband, along with their brothers, shove sand into the water sources that have encircled their home spaces while Samar tries to salvage clothes and blankets. Unuseable and strewn all over them are clothes, basic belongings, and soaked clothing.
[Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera] Samar al-Salmi had prepared nappies and other items for her new baby, but the floodwaters destroyed them.
She claims that she thought it would be safe to place the baby’s hospital bag inside my mother’s tent. However, the rain first rushed in and flooded everything, including the bag.
She continues, “I don’t know where to start.” Should I take care of my children because they need to soak in warm water and wash in mud and sand because their clothes are so dirty?
Or do I try to dry the mattresses since it will be so cold? Or should I get ready to give birth at any time? She inquires.
Aid organizations have warned that Gaza’s displaced families would experience catastrophe each time the winter arrived because they are living in thin, tattered tents as a result of Israel’s strict ban on construction materials and caravans entering the Gaza Strip.
According to Samar, “A tent is not a solution.” We flood in the winter and it’s unbearably hot in the summer. There is no life in this. And yet, winter has not yet begun. When the real cold arrives, what will we do?
“At the very least, why weren’t caravans permitted in?” until this is over, any roof to provide shelter for us.
Samar is now attempting to evict all of her family’s belongings to make the partially habitable Gaza tent [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]
A father is enraged
Abdulrahman al-Salmi, Samar’s husband, is quietly working on the tent repairs with her brothers. He claims he doesn’t even feel like talking to Al Jazeera at first because he is so depressed. But he starts opening up more and more slowly.
” As a father, I’m helpless, “the 39-year-old says”. Our relationship crumbles on one side as a result of my attempts to keep it together. Both during and after the war, that is our life. There hasn’t been a solution for us.
He recalls the call Samar made to him as he arrived for his first day of work at a small barbershop earlier that morning.
He recalls that “she was crying and screaming, and everyone around her was screaming.” Come quickly, she said, “We have our tent in every direction because of the rain.” “
He ran under the rain and dropped everything.
He claims, “The place was completely flooded, like a swimming pool,” with tears streaming into his eyes. People were dumping water from their tents with buckets as my wife and mother-in-law screamed, my children were outside shivering from the cold, and the streets were flooded. Everything was a lot of work.
The rain feels like the end, according to Abdulrahman.
Since the start of the war, “we’ve been struggling in every way, and now the rain has completely ruined our efforts.”
In light of severe shortages and skyrocketing costs, the father expressed his immense difficulty in providing the newborn with necessities.
He claims, “I bought the diapers for 85 shekels ($26),” which is the same price we paid for 13 ($4). The milk formula is 70 ($21). Even the pacifier is pricey. And now everything that we did to prepare for the delivery tomorrow is gone. I’m at a loss for ideas.
The couple’s warm, airy second-floor apartment in Tal al-Hawa, where they once lived a dignified and peaceful life, is all that they can recall.
According to Samara, “The apartment, the building, and the entire neighborhood are destroyed.” Our family homes are all gone. We are left to live in tents.
The couple’s acceptance of their daughter into these circumstances terrifies them the most. Samar will undergo a C-section and then go home.
She softly responds, “I never imagined this.” Under these circumstances, I never imagined welcoming the daughter we had hoped for.
She acknowledges that she occasionally regrets having a baby while serving in the war.
She continues with grief, “In my previous deliveries, I returned from the hospital to my apartment, to my comfortable bed, and I took care of myself and my baby peacefully.”
Any mother in the world would understand my emotions right now, the delicateness of the delivery process, the first few days after delivery, and how sensitive I feel.
Abdulrahman al-Salmi claims that as life “emerges,” Abdulhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera, it makes him feel helpless and frustrated.
Endless entanglement
Samar’s has repeatedly been displaced, moving between Rafah, Nuseirat, and Khan Younis, like most families in Gaza.
I eluded my husband’s family, my uncle’s, and then my family’s home. Everyone is homeless and every house we fled to has been destroyed, according to Samara.
The most severe injuries have occurred to their children, Mohammad, seven, Kinan, five, and Yaman, three.
She says, “Look at them, look at them.” They are shivering because of it. They lack sufficient clothing. And the laundry, which I just washed, is now covered in mud.
After being bitten by insects inside the camp, the children needed to be taken to the hospital a few days ago. Every night, cold and illness stalk them.
According to Abdulrahman, “the older boy couldn’t sleep from stomach pain.” I covered him, but it was ineffective. Nothing is there, just blankets.
Even the ceasefire hasn’t provided any comfort to Samar. She refutes the claim that things have cooled down in the conflict. The war never came to an end, according to her.
They claim that the conflict has ended. What happened now? “Samar asks”. Every day there are bombings, martyrs, and drownings and sufferings. This is the start of a new conflict, not its conclusion.
Salma al-Salmi unloads the rain-soaked tent her family has. [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]
A call for shelter
The couple only desires dignity above all else.
Even caravans are a temporary solution, Samar claims. We are people. We had homes. Rebuilding our homes is what we demand.
Her final appeal targets humanitarian organizations.
We require blankets, mattresses, and clothes. Everything has been destroyed. Someone must be there for us. We require a place to rest. It’s impossible to continue to live on plastic sheets.
Abdulrahman sums up their reality in one sentence as he spreads yet another layer of sand:
We have lost our souls, to be honest.
In Gaza, tents have been flooded by winter rains, and more rain is forecast for the next few months. [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]
In the wake of days of tropical storms, more than 1, 000 people have died as a result of floods and landslides in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Malaysia. As aid teams battle their way to remote areas, President Prabowo is under increasing pressure to declare a national emergency in North Sumatra.
