An ISIS fighter was blown up by an RAF drone because European human rights laws meant troops were barred from capturing him, a report has claimed.
A Reaper drone is said to have fired two hellfire missiles at an ISIS biological weapons engineer in a village in northern Syria in December 2022.
The man’s phone and computer were thought to contain plans for a potential ISIS attack or names of others in his network – but if troops seized his devices, they would have had to let the ISIS fighter go even if he surrendered, the Spectator reports.
Under the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), it is illegal to hand over terrorist suspects to Syria, because of the risk of torture, and it is also illegal to take them to Britain because there’s no extradition treaty.
Therefore, it was reportedly decided to send the RAF drone to kill the Yemeni man.
Robert Jenrick, the Shadow Secretary of State for Justice, said that SAS soldiers were forced to kill terrorists rather than capture them as the ‘European Court will set them free’.
Former defence secretary Ben Wallace said he ordered many strikes like this, but he would have preferred a UK trial ‘rather than making those who seek to do us harm into martyrs’.
This comes as SAS members are scrutinised following an inquiry into allegations that they killed innocent people in Afghanistan and planted weapons on them during the war.
A Reaper drone (pictured) reportedly fired two hellfire missiles at an ISIS biological weapons engineer in a village in northern Syria in December 2022
Robert Jenrick (pictured), the Shadow Secretary of State for Justice, said that SAS soldiers were forced to killed terrorists rather than capture them as the ‘European Court will set them free’
Robert Jenrick, the Shadow Secretary of State for Justice, said that SAS soldiers were forced to killed terrorists rather than capture them as the ‘European Court will set them free (file image of special forces soldiers during military maneuver)
Investigations like this have been criticised by former SAS commanding officer Colonel Richard Williams, since they were not ‘mad dog’ assassins.
‘Special Forces are not above the law. Full stop,’ he told the Spectator, but said that they needed to have ‘the freedoms to execute important actions on behalf of the state’.
The investigations go as far back as the Troubles in Northern Ireland, with one former soldier telling the Spectator that he had tried to kill himself after he was left in legal ‘limbo’ for two decades after his squad killed four members of the IRA’s East Tyrone ‘brigade’ in 1992.
Soldier M, who was part of the SAS for 34 years, said he had to give statements about that night several times, including at an inquest convened under the ECHR’s Article 2, which protects ‘everyone’s right to life’.
‘We are being scapegoated […] and are subject to the whims of successive governments […] when this latest inquiry began, I found myself spiralling downward,’ Soldier M said.
Another former SAS member, George Simm, said that the mood at SAS base Hereford was ‘dark’.
The former regimental sergeant major added that while soldiers usually serve in the SAS for ten to 15 years, ‘the rest of your life is being chased by lawyers’ for actions soldiers took while part of the forces.
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