SAS soldiers killed detainees and unarmed men in Afghanistan in suspicious circumstances on dozens of occasions, according to a BBC TV documentary broadcast in mid-July.
Military reports obtained by Panorama suggest that one SAS unit may have killed 54 people unlawfully in one six-month tour.
Whistleblowers from the SAS squadron told the BBC they saw SAS ‘operators’ kill unarmed people during night raids – and then plant AK-47 rifles to justify the killing.
Typically, during a night raid, the military will call everyone out of a building, search them and restrain them with plastic cable-tie handcuffs. Then one male detainee (with hands tied) will be taken back inside to assist in a search of the building.
Many of the army reports said that a detainee, taken back into a building, pulled out a grenade or a rifle to attack the British soldiers.
Panorama was given internal emails from the time showing that officers reacted with disbelief to the reports, describing them as ‘quite incredible’: ‘this is the 8th time this has happened... You couldn’t MAKE IT UP!’