Two former heads of all UK Special Forces suppressed evidence of possible SAS war crimes, a former high-ranking officer has told a public inquiry in closed evidence sessions.
The officer, who was among the most senior in special forces, said he had passed what he called "explosive" evidence suggesting "criminal behaviour" to the then-director special forces in 2011.
The officer also told the inquiry that the subsequent director special forces, who took over in 2012, "clearly knew there was a problem in Afghanistan" and failed to act.
It was "not just one director that has known about this", he said in his evidence, adding that UK Special Forces leadership was "very much suppressing" the allegations.
The officer, known at the inquiry by the cipher N1466, confirmed that neither head of special forces had passed any of the troubling allegations on to the Royal Military Police (RMP), despite British law requiring commanders to inform the RMP of any possibility someone under their command may have committed a serious criminal offence.
