UK special forces killed nine people “in their beds” during an Afghanistan night raid, an independent inquiry has heard.
Family members say the victims were unarmed civilians. The SAS had claimed they acted in self-defence.
Senior officers suspected troops of carrying out a policy of executing “fighting age” men even if they posed no threat.
The government announced the inquiry after BBC Panorama revealed an SAS squadron killed 54 people in suspicious circumstances on one six-month tour.
As substantive hearings got under way at the Royal Courts of Justice in London on Monday, UK special forces were accused of “abusing” night raids in order to commit “numerous” extra-judicial killings – which were allegedly later covered up.
Hundreds of deliberate detention operations were carried out by special forces between 2010 and 2013.
Lead counsel to the inquiry, Oliver Glasgow KC, set out the details of seven separate kill/capture missions involving the deaths of 33 people, including a number of children.
The alleged unlawful killings of the nine people in the Nad Ali district of Helmand is understood to have occurred as a number of families gathered before a wake on 7 February 2011.
They were sleeping in a single-roomed outbuilding.
The SAS said they had fired in self-defence having been fired upon. Mr Glasgow pointed out the low height of what appear to be bullet holes in the walls of the outbuilding, first revealed by the BBC last year.
