British special forces veterans have testified to how their "psychopath" colleagues killed unarmed sleeping civilians during their service in Afghanistan and Iraq, including a young boy who was handcuffed and shot, a BBC investigation has revealed, quoted by DPA, BTA reported.
The former commandos told the BBC"Panorama" for alleged war crimes amid a major public inquiry into extrajudicial killings in Afghanistan between 2010 and 2013.
One of the veterans told the TV channel that one of the alleged victims was apparently a child who was not even old enough to take part in combat.
A spokesman for former Prime Minister David Cameron said the allegations made while he was in office were against NATO forces, not specifically British special forces. He added that "any suggestion that (Cameron) conspired to cover up allegations of serious criminal wrongdoing is completely absurd".
The BBC said that many people who attended meetings between Cameron and then-Afghan President Hamid Karzai said that Karzai "repeatedly and repeatedly raised this issue".
Those detained were identified as people who had surrendered, had been searched by special forces and were often handcuffed. International law prohibits soldiers from killing prisoners of war or unarmed civilians, DPA recalls.
The alleged crimes span more than a decade, longer than the three-year period currently under investigation in the United Kingdom.
A veteran of the Royal Navy's special forces said that the killings of detainees "have become routine". According to the allegations, the soldiers "search someone, handcuff them and then shoot them" before cutting off the plastic handcuffs and "putting a gun" next to the bodies.
The current investigation also mentions for the first time that members of the Royal Navy's elite special forces were involved. A veteran who served there told the BBC that the soldiers were "barbarians" and acted with a "gang mentality". "I saw the quietest guys go berserk and show serious psychopathic traits. They didn't recognize any laws. They felt untouchable", he said.
A former member of the British Navy said that killing could become "addictive" and some colleagues were "intoxicated by the feeling".
"During some operations, the unit would go into boarding house-type buildings and kill everyone there," he said.
"They would go in and shoot everyone who was sleeping there as they entered. That is not justified – killing people in their sleep," he said.
The Ministry of Defence told the BBC that it was fully cooperating with the ongoing investigation and urged anyone with information relevant to the investigation to come forward, but stressed that it was "not appropriate to comment" on the allegations being investigated.