PNN – British Army Special Forces have officially admitted for the first time that they systematically killed civilians, including children, while they were sleeping during night missions in Afghanistan.
According to the report of Pakistan News Network, British soldiers stationed in Helmand province during the Afghan war were involved in the killing of at least 300 Afghan civilians, many of them at night while the victims were sleeping, according to a new BBC investigative report.
The report states that after arresting civilians, British Special Forces soldiers executed them in cold blood and then, to justify the killing, placed weapons next to the bodies to identify them as “armed enemies.”
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One of the soldiers involved in these missions alone killed 35 civilians during his six-month presence in Afghanistan.
The report also reveals that children were among the victims and, according to witnesses; the shooting of civilians had become a kind of “competition” between some soldiers.
The British military presence in Afghanistan began in 2001 and continued until 2014. During this time, the country’s forces played a prominent role in counter-terrorism operations, especially in southern provinces such as Helmand.
In recent years, reports of abuse and human rights violations by some foreign forces in Afghanistan have been published, but this is the first time that the British military itself has publicly acknowledged such crimes in a case.
Last week, Human Rights Watch criticized the United Kingdom and Australia for investigating the case of “war crimes” committed by their forces in Afghanistan, emphasizing that “families whose innocent members were killed by British and Australian forces during the twenty-year war in Afghanistan are still waiting for justice.”
The organization criticized both countries, stating that there were delays in the investigation of these war crimes and the delivery of justice to the families of the victims.