Five members of the British army’s Special Air Service (SAS) have been arrested by British military police on suspicion of committing war crimes during operations in Syria.
The military’s top brass on Tuesday said the troops used excessive force during a mission, killing a suspected militant in Syria, adding that they should have arrested the man instead.
The soldiers from the elite force could face murder charges over the murder they committed two years ago.
“We hold our personnel to the highest standards, and any allegations of wrongdoing are taken seriously. Where appropriate, any criminal allegations are referred to the service police for investigation,” a spokesperson of the ministry of defense said.
Meanwhile, an international humanitarian rights group has called for a full, immediate investigation, if “UK forces in Syria were alleged to have committed war crimes in Syria.”
“In both Iraq and Afghanistan, there’s been a glaring shortfall in how the UK authorities held members of the military to account over horrific alleged misconduct, and this must not be repeated with Syria,” it added, calling for “accountability and justice” and asserting that “no-one is above the law, including those who wear military uniforms or operate as part of special forces.”
The SAS has been actively deployed in Syria over the past 10 years, with the declared claim of fighting against the Daesh terrorist group, which has already been driven out of all its urban bastions both in Iraq and Syria, but its remnants carry out sporadic terror attacks in both neighboring Arab countries.
Tuesday’s arrest marks another instance of reported misconduct by SAS soldiers, following an independent investigation initiated in March to look into accusations of unlawful killings by British forces in Afghanistan.
An independent investigation was initiated by the British defense ministry in December 2022, following the revelation in a BBC TV documentary that numerous individuals were fatally injured by soldiers belonging to the SAS during their operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan, between 2010 and 2011.
