- Mark Nicol said it was ‘the most intense interview’ of his 25-year career
An interview the Mail’s Defence and Diplomacy Editor obtained with a former SAS soldier equated to a confession of ‘murder’, the journalist said yesterday.
Mark Nicol, who spoke to the ex-soldier in 2017, said it was ‘the most intense interview’ of his 25-year career, as he gave evidence to the Afghan inquiry.
The hearing was provided with a chilling transcript of the 40-minute exchange in which the former soldier confessed to ‘hunting’ down and executing an unarmed Afghan.
He candidly admitted to Mr Nicol that his unit would routinely kill suspected Taliban and plant weapons on the unarmed men to make them appear as if they posed an immediate threat.
In an extract read to the hearing, the SAS soldier said: ‘I don’t think we done wrong. I think it was needed for the people we were dealing with, and that’s how we folded the Taliban.’
Mark Nicol, who spoke to the ex-soldier in 2017, said it was ‘the most intense interview’ of his 25-year career
But the man admitted that some of the incidents he was personally involved in did ‘play on your mind’, adding: ‘Did I do everything right or wrong? But it was my job, so…’
In a shocking confession, the former soldier then went on to reveal how his team leader had instructed him to take a man ‘back in and do a search’ during one particular operation.
‘I sort of read between the lines there, done what I’ve needed to do,’ he said.
‘And then when we went to the bar afterwards, I went quietly, I was like, ‘Have I f***** up here by doing what I did?’ But he [the team leader] went, ‘No, I will never give you anyone to take anywhere unless it is for a reason’.
‘We’re not going out cold-footed and just looking for people, we’re hunting these men individually.’
Mr Nicol said that he then realised the soldier was referring to extrajudicial killings.
The soldier said that suspected commanders would hide their weapons and suggested the unit would be forced to plant firearms on deceased bodies to make them appear as if they had posed a threat.
He said: ‘It’s just unfortunate that in the heat of the moment when we’re doing our job we have to, provide to the Afghans there, and then that was the only way we can deal with it, and then we sort out the bits, you know what I mean.’
Afghan families have accused the unit of conducting a ‘campaign of murder’ against civilians, amid claims of a cover-up (File Image)
Mr Nicol who wrote a story covering most aspects of the interview which featured in The Mail On Sunday at the time, agreed with the source not to ‘mention or allude’ to his personal confession.
When asked by counsel Oliver Glasgow why he did not include the admission, Mr Nicol said: ‘At that time it is still open to a degree of interpretation and the specific circumstances.
‘I think it would have been cavalier to have done as you suggested [and included it nonetheless].’
The inquiry is examining whether Special Forces had a policy of executing males of ‘fighting age’ who posed no immediate threat to UK forces in Afghanistan between 2010 and 2013.
Afghan families have accused the unit of conducting a ‘campaign of murder’ against civilians, amid claims of a cover-up.
The inquiry continues.
