Evidence suggests UK soldiers executed unarmed Afghan civilians

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Strong evidence indicates Britain's Special Air Service (SAS) unit executed unarmed civilians in Afghanistan and fabricated reports to shift blame onto their Afghan partners, the Times reports, citing military and defense sources.

The allegations came from a Royal Military Police (RMP) investigation Operation Northmoor, which has been conducted for 18 months.

Special forces soldiers allegedly murdered Afghans during raids on their homes and planted guns on the victims to make it appear as if they had been Taliban insurgents.

Senior military police and defense sources said evidence of war crimes by the SAS was "credible". Part of the inquiry is focused on one squadron, which has been described as a "rogue" unit.

Operation Northmoor is said to have acquired drone and other video footage which shows soldiers in British uniform opening fire, not the British army’s Afghan partners, who acted as backup and interpreters.

Investigators also gained photos, taken by the SAS, of the scenes of the shootings, in which the victims are holding a Makarov pistol, a weapon favored by the Taliban leadership, to pretend that the person they shot was an armed Taliban leader instead of a civilian.

A Makarov pistol /VCG Photo‍

Other evidence includes the bullets recovered from civilians' bodies which matched the 5.56mm caliber used by the SAS, rather than the larger bullets used by the Afghan special forces, reported the Times.

The initial investigation of unlawful killings between 2010-2013 and offences including false imprisonment and assault was expected to run until 2021. However, the Ministry of Defence told RMP officers to finish most of their work by this summer, reported The Independent.

Britain's Ministry of Defence /VCG Photo

The Times quoted a military police source as saying the ministry wanted to "avoid any of the detail of the accusations getting into the press and thereby undermining, in their view, national security, public trust, [and] work with allies”.

The Independent citing a spokesperson for the ministry reported that the RMP had decided to drop more than 90 percent of the 675 cases it started, adding "The Royal Military Police has found no evidence of criminal behavior by the armed forces in Afghanistan.”