How a British special forces raid went wrong, and a young family in Afghanistan paid the price
Bilal and Imran Uzbakzai, by their mother's grave. They cannot remember her now. Image: Julian Busch/BBCWhen British special forces raided a family home in Afghanistan in 2012, they killed two young parents and gravely wounded their infant sons. A BBC investigation has revealed that special forces command didn't refer the incident to military police and it was never investigated, until now. In Afghanistan, a family is still trying to heal.
After sunset, the two guests were given food and ate separately and they left without incident at 10pm, Abdul Aziz said. It was a hot summer night in Shesh Aba, so the family ate outside. At the end of the meal, Abdul Aziz stood up and said he was tired and would go to bed. He said "Goodnight Hussain Jan" - a term of loving affection - to his son, "Goodnight daughter" to Ruqqia, and "Goodnight boys" to the boys.
"I pleaded with them to let me go to where my son and daughter-in-law and their children were sleeping," Abdul Aziz said. "I could hear my two daughters screaming and pleading for help. No one was helping them. I could not do anything for my children."The family lives in a small village made up of traditional mud homes, in Nimruz province. Image: Julian Busch/BBC
Mohammad Mohammad's account appears to mirror the pattern of killings that had already raised suspicions among senior special forces officers. In the aftermath of the raid, a British military commander had a decision to make. Under UK law, commanders are obliged to inform military police if there is any possibility that a Schedule 2 offence has been committed by a person under their command. Schedule 2 offences are serious offences like unlawful killing and grievous bodily harm.
The MoD said: "Following a review by senior Army lawyers, it was decided by the Commanding Officer, in accordance with the Armed Forces Act 2006 and MoD policy, that the circumstances did not require a referral to the Service Police."General Sir Mark Carleton-Smith was head of UK Special Forces at the time of the Shesh Aba raid in 2012.
General Carleton-Smith told the BBC it remains his view that "the Rules of Engagement were correctly observed despite the occasionally tragic outcomes that are sadly inevitable during war". The problem was "widespread", the senior officer said, but UK Special Forces was "notable in its lack of referrals". The BBC has identified at least three other occasions when an SIR was completed by UK Special Forces but not referred to the RMP. "In Special Forces, it's easier to keep it 'in house'," the former senior officer said. "There's a lot less oversight.
The BBC asked the MoD if anyone had ever been officially disciplined over the Shesh Aba raid, but they declined to respond. "They were just too small to understand," Abdul Aziz said. "Imran would cry more, maybe because of the pain, but maybe because he could sense that his mother was no longer alive."Imran stands by his parents' graves. "I wish our mother and father were with us today," he said. Image: Julian Busch/BBC
Bilal is 11. He has a scar on his face from a bullet that hit him millimetres from his left eye and a scar on his shoulder where another round hit him and left a bullet fragment inside his bone. He gets pain in his arm when he uses it a lot, he said, and the position of the scar on his face is a permanent reminder of how close he came to death.Scars on Imran's abdomen show the damage from the bullet wound as well as his surgical incision.
As the boys were examined, Abdul Aziz sat quietly alongside them and held their hands, just as he had sat with them 10 years ago, in another hospital, when they were much smaller, knowing that they were his responsibility now.Imran sits in a hospital in Lashkar Gah, where the boys were examined in October. Image: Julian Busch/BBCHussain and Ruqqia were married on a hot summer's day in 2006, in Zahedan, Iran, where Ruqqia's family lived.
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