The United Kingdom has launched an independent inquiry into allegations of unlawful killings by its soldiers in Afghanistan more than a decade ago, the country’s defence ministry announced on Thursday.
The statutory inquiry headed by senior judge Charles Haddon-Cave will start early next year. It will probe the alleged wrongdoing by commandos in the elite Special Air Service (SAS) corps spanning a period from mid-2010 to mid-2013.
The independent probe will look into allegations that British special forces killed dozens of Afghan civilians over a decade ago.
The SAS corps were accused of killing dozens of Afghans in suspicious circumstances, but the military chain of command concealed concerns, the BBC claimed in a report earlier this year.
Unarmed Afghan men were routinely shot dead “in cold blood” by SAS troops during night-time raids, and weapons were planted on them to justify the crimes, the broadcaster reported following its own four-year probe.
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