UK special forces 'killed 9 people in their beds' in Afghanistan

NEW DELHI: UK special forces killed nine people "in their beds" in an Afghanistan night raid in 2011, as per an independent inquiry, reported

BBC

.
On February 7, 2011, several families gathered before a wake when nine persons are said to have been killed unlawfully in the Nad Ali region of Helmand, the youngest being a 14 year-old.
The deaths, according to family members, were unarmed citizens who were sleeping in a single-roomed outbuilding.
Owner of the house that was invaded on February 7th,

Habibullah Alizai

, claimed he awoke to the "noise of shouting and gunshots" before being taken from his room and "interrogated and beaten" by troops.

He was also the first to discover the bodies of his two sons, and the seven others who had been killed.
The

SAS

said they acted in self-defense after being fired upon. Mr Glasgow had pointed out bullet holes in the walls of the outbuilding.
Senior leaders believed that troops had a practice of killing males who were "fighting age" even if they did not constitute a threat.
After BBC Panorama reported that an SAS squadron killed 54 individuals over a six-month tour in questionable circumstances, the government announced the investigation.

On Monday, as the

Royal Courts of Justice

in London opened the substantive hearings, UK special forces were charged with "abusing" night raids to carry out "numerous" extrajudicial executions that were allegedly later covered up.
Between 2010 and 2013, special forces carried out hundreds of deliberate detention operations, reported BBC.