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UK SAS Soldiers Refuse to Answer Questions Over Afghanistan War Crimes

Many soldiers from Britain's Special Air Service (SAS) have refused to answer questions as part of an inquiry into alleged war crimes committed in Afghanistan, the Guardian reported on Monday.

The inquiry, which began in 2023, was created to investigate unlawful killings by British forces in Afghanistan between 2010 and 2013. It is also investigating allegations of a cover-up and whether the Royal Military Police properly investigated the incidents.

In Monday's hearing, Lord Justice Charles Haddon-Q told the Guardian that written requests for information had been sent to a large number of SAS soldiers linked to deliberate detention operations (DDOs) at the center of the allegations.

"Many individuals have indicated their intention to rely on their privilege against self-incrimination and have refused to answer the inquiry's questions," the judge said, according to the newspaper.

This inquiry has also faced problems in receiving documents from the Ministry of Defense.

At the hearing in September, Haddon Q revealed that 97 million records from the period under review had been removed from previous searches. The judge described the discovery as "disturbing and unfortunate". The department said it expected only about 1,200 additional documents would need to be disclosed and apologized for the delay in responding to the inquiry's questions.

In April, British media reported that SAS soldiers were resigning in significant numbers due to fear of prosecution related to past operations. The Telegraph quoted an unnamed insider as saying: “Morale is weak at the moment.

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The investigation investigated claims that 80 Afghans were killed during the SAS operation. A senior Special Forces whistleblower claimed commanders failed to act on warnings about extrajudicial killings in 2011.

In 2022, a BBC Panorama investigation identified 54 people killed in suspicious circumstances by an SAS unit during a six-month deployment in Afghanistan's Helmand province between November 2010 and May 2011.

The BBC also reported that senior special forces officers were aware of concerns about the killings but did not report them to the military police.

British troops were deployed to Afghanistan in 2001 as part of the US-led invasion following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The UK subsequently became one of the largest participants in the NATO mission, with British forces heavily involved in the fight against Taliban insurgents, particularly in the southern province of Helmand.

More than 450 British military personnel were killed during the nearly two-decade campaign. Britain withdrew its remaining forces in 2021 as the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan after the collapse of the Western-backed government.