SAS had ‘gone too far’ in Afghanistan, inquiry into claims of unlawful killings told

David Neal, whose note said there was an increasing ‘loss of sympathy’ for special forces in No 10. Photograph: David Neal

Senior figures in Downing Street were calling in 2016 for the SAS to have its “wings clipped” as it emerged that a growing number of suspected murders of Afghan civilians were being investigated by military police.

Critics of the elite unit’s behaviour were led by Jeremy Heywood, who at the time was cabinet secretary to the then prime minister, Theresa May, according to a memo cited last week during a public inquiry into allegations of unlawful SAS killings in Afghanistan.