UK inquiry releases photos of people shot in bed in SAS Afghanistan raids

The inquiry into UK special forces operations in Afghanistan released the photographs on Tuesday, describing them as 'essential evidence'. The images, taken across two SAS operations in Helmand province in 2011, show multiple individuals lying in bed with shots to the head. Seventeen people were killed across the two operations, according to the inquiry; the youngest victims were 15 and 14 years old respectively.

One person in the photos is tucked under a floral blanket, others have their heads on pillows with blood pooling around them. Blood spatter is visible low on a wall in one image, consistent with someone being shot while lying down. Lead barrister Oliver Glasgow KC said many of the dead 'look like they sustained head shots', and that further analysis may confirm whether they were 'shot when asleep'. He described multiple 'traumatic injuries to the head or face'.

Glasgow told the inquiry the photos appeared to contradict the accounts given by the SAS and would have raised serious questions for military police investigating the operations as potential murders. Lt Col John Harvey, who led the military police's murder probe, agreed the images 'didn't look right' and said his team were clear they could be vital evidence. Despite repeated requests from investigators to submit the photographs for further testing, that testing never took place. One investigator, speaking anonymously to the BBC, said 'you can see why we were concerned', adding that bullet marks so low on the walls appeared to undermine the special forces' version of events.

The inquiry is examining allegations that the SAS murdered unarmed civilians and detainees on night raids between 2010 and 2013, then planted weapons to cover up the killings. Official special forces accounts claim Taliban insurgents opened fire on troops entering the compounds, forcing the SAS to return fire. Weaponry experts told the BBC that evidence collected by Panorama indicated multiple rounds appeared to have been fired from above, suggesting those killed were lying down or sitting against a wall rather than in a firefight. Family members told Panorama the dead had been shot cleanly in the head or chest.

BBC Panorama has been investigating the allegations for more than eight years, and the public inquiry was established in 2022 in the wake of its revelations. Panorama's 2022 investigation examined four raids on homes in Helmand that killed 26 people; its team were the first British investigators to visit the sites, despite a five-year-long military police investigation. The inquiry is now subjecting the released photographs to expert forensic analysis.

The inquiry also heard evidence questioning whether alleged war crimes were thoroughly investigated. Investigators were still in Afghanistan in July 2019 gathering evidence as senior officers prepared to close their murder investigation and inform ministers, it heard. One member of the Afghan partner unit that served alongside the SAS told military police he had personally witnessed a British soldier planting a rifle on an unarmed person after they had been killed.