A senior officer in the UK Special Air Service (SAS) is accused of excising a damning sentence from a confidential report on night raids that left dozens of Afghans dead under suspicious circumstances. The alteration was revealed in documents released by a High Court inquiry chaired by Lord Justice Haddon‑Cave, which is examining claimms that Special Forces executed captives and concealed evidence. the officer, identified as N1788, acted while serving in a supervisory role at Special Forces headquarters in London.

Deleted Sentence Could Have Triggered a Murder Inquiry

The removed paragraph read, “In my view there is enough here to convince me that we are getting some things wrong right now,” a statement that, according to the inquiry, might have prompted the Director Special Forces (DSF) to alert military police. The judge‑led probe notes that the DSF was weighing whether to launch a murder investigation into the suspicious shootings. By deleting the line, N1788 allegedly prevented the document from flagging the need for a criminal probe.

Statistical Disparities Sparked Allegations of ‘Shoot‑to‑Kill’ Policy

In April 2011 the officer received a statistical analysis showing a stark mismatch between enemies killed in action (EKIA) and the number of weapons recovered from suspected Taliban compounds.. The disparity suggested that many unarmed Afghans were being shot. The analysis was meant for a senior legal advisor and the DSF, yet the inquiry says the officer claimed the data “required balance” before submission. As reported by the BBC’s Panorama and the Mail, eyewitnesses claim a “shoot‑to‑kill” policy was adopted from 2010, fueling accusations that Special Forces were executing rather than detaining suspects.

Culture of Trust and Silence at SAS Headquarters

Chief of Staff N2252 told the inquiry that the ethos of UK Special Forces (UKSF) is built on trust, assuming that any statement made by a soldier is truthful. He said officers were expected to “put aside any privae concerns regarding possible wrongdoing.” The inquiry heard that reports were often copied from night to night because operators were exhausted, leading to rushed paperwork and limited scrutiny. This environment, according to the testimony, may have enabled the deletion to go unnoticed.

Legal and Political Backdrop of the High Court Inquiry

The investigation was ordered by former Defence Secretary Ben Wallace in 2022 after a £10 million military police operation, dubbed Operation Northmoor, and several judicial reviews by Afghan families alleging extra‑judicial killings. Lord Justice Haddon‑Cave’s inquiry, which runs until 2028, is tasked with determining whether unlawful killings occurred and if senior commanders covered them up. As the inquiry notes, the Director Special Forces feared that a Royal Military Police investigation would distract troops from the priority of dismantling Taliban IED cells.

Unanswered Questions About Accountability

Who ultimately approved the altered document before it reached the DSF remains unclear, and whether any other officers were involved in similar edits has not been established. The inquiry also has not confirmed if the deleted sentence would have definitively led to a murder investigation, leaving the extent of the cover‑up open to further scrutiny.