SAS troops dropped prisoners from forklift ‘for fun’, inquiry hears

SAS troops currently under investigation for war crimes dropped prisoners from a forklift “for fun”, an inquiry has heard. And one soldier who served with them was allegedly called a “Taliban-loving apologist” for raising concerns about the elite unit’s behaviour.

The inquiry into allegations that the SAS extrajudicially murdered Afghan civilians between 2010 and 2023 occupation heard from two whistleblowers on 14 July:

Monica Grenfell, a former journalist, and Christopher Green, who was part of the Army Reserve, contacted the Afghanistan Inquiry to give evidence after the chairman issued a request for information.

According to Sky News:

Both witnesses spoke behind closed doors with only redacted excerpts released on Tuesday.

Green served alongside special forces as an attached army reservist. He tried to raise concerns about the killings of three Afghan brothers. Green said the deaths were:

described to him as having “gone wrong”, forcing special forces to shoot lawfully “in self-defence”.

However, Green said the army’s intelligence was:

pretty clear that there was nothing to suggest that the sons were anything other than farmers and even less to suggest that they were Taliban commanders.

When he raised these concerns with a liaison officer, he encountered strong resentment from the elite commandos:

At some point he did call me a ‘Taliban-loving apologist’.

Green also asked to see so-called ‘gun tapes’ — video recordings of the raids — but was denied access despite having the right security clearance.

SAS — Forklift ‘fun’ with prisoners

Monica Grenfell served alongside the SAS as a stores person and kitchen staff member. She told the inquiry she was informed by a soldier that special forces troops had abused prisoners by lifting them up on the forks of a forklift and then dropping them.

I specifically recall him telling me that he would put prisoners on a forklift, raise it up and drive very fast so that they fell off.

Grenfell said she had:

Never been anywhere that was as bad as there.

There was a sense that:

People had been let off the leash somehow.

Adding:

You felt no one was really watching them [the soldiers], and the language was just… I’ve never known the language like it.

After the US-led occupation of Afghanistan collapsed in 2021, then-PM Boris Johnson said UK troops should be:

Proud of their achievements and we should be deeply proud of them.

The nature of allegations which have since the war included suppressed evidence, murdered children, and failure to report serious allegations simply to spare the alleged killer’s morale. They make this kind of grandiose claim even more precarious than before.

The story of the UK’s shadow war in Afghanistan may never be fully known, but the kind of stories starting to appear are shocking indeed.

Featured image via the Canary