The UK Ministry of Defence has said 97 million documents related to the war in Afghanistan were identified more than three years after an independent inquiry was launched, a development that has cast fresh uncertainty and criticism over the handling of allegations of war crimes by the country’s special forces. According to official sources, the documents include images of bodies and equipment recorded after night operations and are now being examined as potential evidence.<\/p>\n
Lord Justice Haddon-Cave, who chairs the inquiry panel, described the late discovery as “unusual” and “concerning” and has for the first time called the UK Ministry of Defence to an emergency meeting. He stressed that all relevant documents must be handed over to the panel immediately so the review process is not delayed further.<\/p>\n
Stephen Gray, a lawyer for the Ministry of Defence, apologised for the situation and said the problem was the result of a “failure in communications”, not a failure in duty. He also acknowledged that the ministry is reviewing documents across different systems at significant cost and promised that new measures would be put in place to prevent such incidents from happening again.<\/p>\n
Families of Afghan victims and their lawyers have described the situation as “astonishing” and said the UK Ministry of Defence had deliberately obstructed the path to justice. Edward Craven, a lawyer for the families, said the most important demand of the survivors is that the truth be revealed about how their loved ones were killed.<\/p>\n
The inquiry began in 2022 following BBC reports that said UK special forces had unlawfully killed Afghan civilians, including children and handcuffed detainees, during night operations. Senior British military officials had previously also acknowledged they believed special forces were involved in the killing of civilians.<\/p>\n
The cost of the inquiry has now reached 58 million pounds, half of which has been spent on the Ministry of Defence’s responses and on lawyers for former officers. Despite an initial promise to publish a report within 18 months, nearly four years have passed and no outcome has yet been released, intensifying criticism over delays and high costs.<\/p>\n
The chair of the inquiry said the final deadline for hearing all evidence would be 30 April 2027, and that the newly discovered documents should not be used as an excuse for further delay. The UK Ministry of Defence also said in a statement that it remained fully committed to cooperating with the inquiry, although it admitted it had not handled the submission of documents as quickly or as systematically as it should have.<\/p>\n
The war in Afghanistan was one of Britain’s longest military deployments abroad, and during the years of its presence there, UK special forces repeatedly took part in night operations in various areas. The allegations raised in this inquiry are mainly linked to those operations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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