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20 hours ago
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Afghans who were killed by members of the SAS in Afghanistan were described dismissively as having been “flat packed” according to revealing testimony given by a former member of the elite force’s sister unit to a public inquiry.
The soldier, known only as N1799, said he had been party to a conversation with a member of the SAS in 2011 who had served in Afghanistan, in which he had been “shocked by the age and methods” used to kill Afghans.
N1799 told his superiors at the time that he believed the SAS had a policy in Afghanistan to “kill all males on target whether they posed a threat or not” – but in his evidence to the inquiry he said what he had heard in person was “more graphic”.
Asked to explain what he meant by Oliver Glasgow, the counsel to the inquiry, the soldier said that “words that have been used about killing were like ‘flat packing’, ‘flat packing them’” because the conversation was informal, among colleagues.
At another point the SAS member – known only as N1201 – told N1799, while on a training course, that “a pillow had been put over the head of someone before they had been killed with a pistol” during operations in Afghanistan.
N1799 was one of seven commanders and soldiers who have recently given evidence to an inquiry into the deaths of up to 80 Afghan civilians during an SAS deployment in Helmand province between 2010 and 2013.
Members of the SAS and Special Boat Service (SBS) are embroiled in a growing number of official investigations relating to the conduct of elite soldiers on undercover missions in Libya and Syria as well as Afghanistan.
On Tuesday, it emerged that four members of the SBS are under investigation by military police after a car chase in Libya approximately two years ago that led to the death of a suspected terrorist. The Daily Mail reported that the elite soldiers had eventually surrounded the vehicle, firing shots and killing its occupant.
Five serving SAS soldiers are also facing possible murder charges over the death of a suspected jihadi in Syria. They have been accused of using excessive force, when the target should have been arrested, and the inquiry is continuing.
N1799’s testimony was initially given in secret to protect national security, but summaries and redacted transcripts have been released on Wednesday in an effort to be transparent about the work of the inquiry.
The presiding judge, Charles Haddon-Cave, also ruled that the identity of N1799 and the others giving evidence must remain undisclosed. N1799 was an officer in the sister unit SBS at the time he heard N1201’s account of how the SAS operated in Afghanistan.
SAS and SBS operations are conducted in secret and while the chief of the units, the director of special forces, is part of the military chain of command, they also report directly to the prime minister.
N1799 also told the inquiry he still feared for his personal safety and wellbeing if his name were to be linked to allegations that the SAS had been murdering Afghan civilians on deployment, and told the inquiry that he believed he had broken “a code of silence”. Past and present members of the SAS would regard him as a traitor, he added.
The Ministry of Defence said it did not comment on the activities of special forces or an ongoing public inquiry.
