Afghanistan SAS murder inquiry hears claims military police were blocked from following evidence

A public inquiry in the United Kingdom has heard claims that senior officers prevented military police investigators from following evidence in a probe into alleged killings by the SAS in Afghanistan. The testimony came from Delme Williams, a former military police investigator who worked on Operation Northmoor, the inquiry into alleged unlawful killings by British special forces. He told the hearing that the investigation was not allowed to proceed in the normal way and that decisions were being directed from above.

Sponsored

Williams said he remained convinced that members of British special forces should have faced criminal charges. He told the inquiry that he had questioned whether the senior Royal Military Police officer in charge, known as the Gold commander, was being influenced to close the investigation. According to his evidence, he and other investigators were discussing photographs from one of the operations when he was abruptly shut down after suggesting the images should be shown to a forensics expert.

The inquiry is examining allegations that SAS killings in Afghanistan were covered up, and this was the first time it had heard from people involved in the military police investigations into special forces operations. Williams said the case involved a February 2011 operation in Nad Ali district, Helmand Province, where nine people were fatally shot, including a 14-year-old. He said photographs from the scene showed bullet marks low to the ground, which he believed could have challenged the SAS account that those killed had been standing and had fired first before British forces returned fire.

Operation Northmoor examined 11 SAS operations, and Williams said investigators suspected the people shot in the Helmand case had been killed unlawfully. His evidence adds to scrutiny of how allegations involving elite units were handled, particularly where the chain of command may have affected the independence of investigators. The inquiry is chaired by Lord Justice Sir Charles Haddon-Cave, and the hearing is part of a wider effort to establish whether evidence was overlooked or suppressed during earlier inquiries.

Sponsored

The allegations are significant because they concern not only the conduct of special forces in a conflict zone, but also the integrity of the military justice process. Afghanistan has long been a focus of scrutiny over civilian harm and the conduct of foreign forces during the war, and claims of obstruction in an internal investigation raise questions about accountability within the armed forces. The case also touches on the credibility of official accounts given at the time of the shootings.

Operation Northmoor was set up to examine allegations against one SAS unit across multiple operations, and the inquiry has now begun to hear directly from those who carried out the investigation. Williams said he believed the photographs should have been reviewed by an expert and that he was prevented from pursuing that line of inquiry. His account suggests a dispute not only over what happened in Helmand, but over whether investigators were allowed to test the evidence properly.

What remains unclear is how far any alleged interference went, who made the relevant decisions, and whether the inquiry will find that evidence was deliberately constrained. The hearing is expected to continue examining the handling of the investigation and the role of senior officers in shaping its direction. Further testimony may help determine whether the concerns raised by Williams were isolated or part of a broader pattern in the handling of special forces allegations.

#Afghanistan #SAS #militarypolice #OperationNorthmoor #inquiry

Sponsored