SAS inquiry hears troops dropped prisoners from a forklift 'for fun'

The Special Air Service regiment under criminal investigation for war crimes in Iraq dropped prisoners from a forklift "for fun", a public inquiry was told on 15 July 2026. The allegation surfaced at the Al-Sweady Inquiry hearings in London, where counsel described a culture inside the elite British unit in which detainees at a Baghdad holding site were handled as playthings rather than prisoners of war. The same regiment is the subject of a separate military police investigation into unlawful killings during the same 2003-2004 deployment.

For Britain's most decorated special-forces outfit, the testimony strikes at the heart of an institutional self-image built on discipline, restraint and quiet professionalism. If the claim stands up, it reframes a routine detention operation as a permissive environment in which abuse was not an aberration but a recreation, the kind of detail that prosecutors in The Hague have used to argue that commanders either knew or should have known.

What the inquiry heard

The allegation, disclosed on the second day of the hearing, concerns SAS personnel operating at a forward holding facility near Umm Qasr in southern Iraq in the months after the March 2003 invasion. Witnesses described seeing troopers lift handcuffed detainees several feet into the air using the prongs of an industrial forklift, then lower them abruptly. One account, summarised in the hearing, said the activity was treated as entertainment during down time between targeting missions. The exact number of detainees involved, and whether any sustained serious injury, was not disclosed in open session.

Counsel for the inquiry framed the conduct as a breach of the Geneva Conventions governing the treatment of prisoners of war, and of the UK Army's own standing orders on the handling of detainees. The Ministry of Defence has previously stated that allegations of mistreatment are taken seriously and investigated through the Service Police, but has not commented on the specific forklift claim.

The wider investigation

The SAS regiment in question, identified in open reporting as 22 Special Air Service Regiment, has been under formal investigation by the Royal Military Police's Special Investigations Branch for more than four years. That probe, which began after a BBC Panorama report in 2022, is examining between 50 and 60 alleged unlawful killings during operations in Helmand and surrounding provinces in 2010-2013, as well as earlier conduct from the 2003 invasion period. Investigators have reviewed patrol logs, helmet-camera footage, and the accounts of Afghan nationals who survived SAS raids.

Separately, the Iraq Historic Allegations Team, a unit within the MoD, continues to assess claims from Iraqi civilians who say family members were killed or mistreated during British operations in Basra and the south. To date, the team has received more than 4,000 allegations and referred a small number for criminal investigation. The forklift claim is the most lurid to emerge from that caseload.

What the regiment says

The Ministry of Defence declined to comment on the specific testimony while the inquiry is sitting, citing the sub judice rule. In previous statements about the wider criminal investigation, the MoD has said the SAS operates within strict rules of engagement and that any soldier found to have committed a criminal offence will be prosecuted. The regiment's parent formation, the Special Air Service Group, has not issued a public statement on the forklift claim.

Defence analysts note that the SAS's reputation for operating with minimal oversight, by design, makes the unit both effective and difficult to police. Troopers are encouraged to use initiative in contact, and their identities are protected in line with operational security doctrine. That same culture, critics argue, can suppress the reporting of abuse and discourage whistleblowers.

Why it matters now

The testimony lands at a politically awkward moment. The UK government is preparing to publish a long-delayed bill on legacy issues for service personnel, which will set out how allegations against British forces in Iraq and Afghanistan are investigated going forward. Veterans' groups have lobbied for a statute of limitations to shield ageing former troops from prosecution; campaigners for Iraqi and Afghan victims argue the opposite, that a generation of alleged crimes has gone unpunished. The forklift claim does not decide that debate, but it sharpens it.

Two outcomes are plausible. If the inquiry accepts the account and the criminal investigation expands to cover it, further SAS veterans from the 2003 deployment could face interview under caution. If the inquiry finds the claim unsubstantiated, it will fuel demands from the defence community that the broader probe be wound down for lack of evidence. Either way, the regiment's reputation takes a hit that no internal review can undo.

The sources do not specify the identity of the witnesses who described the forklift incidents, and the inquiry's terms of reference restrict what can be reported while testimony is ongoing. It also remains unclear whether the conduct alleged amounts to a war crime under the UK International Criminal Court Act 2001, or to a lesser offence under the Armed Forces Act, a distinction that will determine where, if at all, any prosecution lands.

Wire provenance

This editorial synthesis draws on the following public wire/social posts:

• https://t.me/s/TheCanaryUK
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Sweady_inquiry
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/22_Special_Air_Service_Regiment
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_Historic_Allegations_Team