The Ministry of Defence documents revealed that the UK Special Forces officers suspected that their men were killing unarmed Afghans who posed no threat. The High Court was told that senior military officers swept the evidence that British troops were executing detainees under the rug 

The documents also revealed that the allegations were hidden and not reported to the Royal Military Police (RMP). The MoD said that the evidence is not new and an investigation is already in process.

The court case follows a 2019 investigation that unearthed unlawful killings by special forces during the war in Afghanistan.

Currently, the High Court is mulling whether the allegations were investigated properly by the armed forces.

Saifullah, the man who brought the case, claimed that four members of his family were assassinated in the early hours of 16 February 2011. His lawyers want the defence secretary to release more documents before a full judicial review hearing.

Disclosed documents have already been presented to the court. The documents showed that 9 Afghan men were killed in a raid on 7 February 2011. Another 8 were killed by the same special forces two days later.

As more than a dozen detainees were killed, British troops claimed that they were forced to shoot them as they reached for hidden weapons.

The latest documents showed that a British lieutenant colonel did not believe the official accounts. He said that number of prisoners reaching for hidden weapons was ‘quite incredible’.

A fellow officer replied: “I find it depressing it has come to this. Ultimately a massive failure of leadership.”

The documents show the killings were described as “astonishing” by a senior officer.

Another senior officer said that “the layers of implausibilities” made the official account “especially surprising and logic defying”.

The officer said: “It was also indicated that fighting-age males were being executed on target inside compounds, using a variety of methods after they had been restrained. In one case it was mentioned a pillow was put over the head of an individual being killed with a pistol.”