‘Pack them flat’: soldier says SAS described killing Afghans in casual fashion | british army

Afghans killed by members of the SAS in Afghanistan were described dismissively as having been “flat packed”, according to revealing evidence given by a former member of the elite force’s sister unit to a public inquiry.

The soldier, known only as N1799, said he had taken part in a conversation with a member of the SAS in 2011 who had served in Afghanistan, where he had been “shocked by the age and methods” used to kill Afghans .

N1799 told his superiors at the time that he believed the SAS had a policy in Afghanistan to “kill all men on target, whether they posed a threat or not” – but in his evidence to the inquiry he said that, he had personally heard was “more graphic”.

When asked to explain what he meant by Oliver Glasgow, counsel for the inquiry, the soldier said that “words that have been used about killing were like ‘flat pack’, ‘flat pack them'” because the conversation was informal among colleagues.

At another point, a Special Forces member – known only as N1201 – told N1799 while on a training course that “a pillow had been put over someone’s head before they were killed with a gun” during operations in Afghanistan.

N1799 was one of seven commanders and soldiers who recently gave evidence to an inquiry into the deaths of up to 80 Afghan civilians during an SAS deployment in Helmand province between 2010 and 2013.

Members of the SAS and Special Boat Service (SBS) are involved in an increasing number of official investigations into the conduct of elite soldiers on undercover missions in Libya and Syria as well as Afghanistan.

On Tuesday, it emerged that four members of the SBS are under investigation by the military police following a car chase in Libya approximately two years ago that led to the death of a suspected terrorist. The Daily Mail reported that the elite soldiers eventually surrounded the vehicle, opened fire and killed its occupant.

Five serving SAS soldiers also face possible manslaughter charges for the death of a suspected jihadist in Syria. They have been accused of using excessive force when the target should have been arrested, and the investigation continues.

N1799’s testimony was initially given in secret to protect national security, but summaries and redacted transcripts have been released on Wednesday in an effort to be transparent about the inquiry’s work.

The presiding judge, Charles Haddon-Cave, also ruled that the identities of N1799 and the others who gave evidence must remain undisclosed. N1799 was an officer in the sister unit SBS at the time he heard N1201’s account of how the SAS operated in Afghanistan.

SAS and SBS operations are conducted in secret, and while the head of the units, the Director of Special Forces, is part of the military chain of command, they also report directly to the Prime Minister.

N1799 also told the inquest that he still feared for his personal safety and well-being if his name was to be linked to allegations that the SAS had murdered Afghan civilians while deployed, and told the inquest that he believed he had broken “a code of silence “. Former and current members of the SAS would consider him a traitor, he added.

The Ministry of Defense said it does not comment on special forces activities or an ongoing public inquiry.