William Hague: We must not let war file leaks damage Afghan campaign

12 April 2012

America and Britain were today battling to stop a huge leak of secret documents from damaging the military campaign in Afghanistan.

Foreign Secretary William Hague said that the disclosure of more than 90,000 intelligence and incident reports on the website WikiLeaks must not be allowed to "poison" relations between Nato forces and the Afghan people.

The leak, which was strongly condemned by the White House and No 10, reportedly contains 144 logs of incidents in which hundreds of Afghan civilians were killed or injured by Nato troops. British forces are mentioned on at least 21 occasions and officials at the Ministry of Defence are investigating the accuracy of the reports. Sources denied there had been any policy to cover up such killings.

But WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange claimed there appeared to be evidence of war crimes, though he was not referring specifically to UK troops. In comments likely to infuriate the families of many soldiers serving in Afghanistan, he said: "This is the equivalent of opening the Stasi archives." The Stasi were the East German secret police.

However, he was criticised by the US and UK authorities and military experts who warned the disclosures could put soldiers' lives at risk — a claim he denied.

Washington has launched a hunt to identify the mole who passed on the information.

In Pakistan, intelligence chiefs also reacted angrily to claims that they were supporting the Taliban insurgency as alleged in dozens of reports, many seemingly unsubstantiated.

The documents, which date from 2004 to last year, revealed details of operations by a unit, which Mr Assange claimed was an "assassination squad", to target Taliban and al Qaeda leaders.

They also claim that more than 2,000 civilians have been killed by the Taliban's makeshift bombs and a further 5,000 injured. Mr Assange said: "The real story of this material is that it is war, it's one damn thing after another."

Describing it as the "everyday squalor of war", he added: "It's the continuous small events, the continuous deaths of children, insurgents, allied forces, the millions of people."

He defended the authenticity of the reports but admitted that some of their contents may not be accurate.

Incidents said to have involved UK troops include an Afghan general's son being killed in November 2007.

The bodies of two women and two children were reportedly found after ambushed troops called in helicopter gunships in March 2008. In November that year, Royal Marines reportedly fired "warning shots" at a vehicle approaching a convoy, killing a child.

A laser-guided bomb killed eight civilians, according to the logs, after Gurkhas training a police unit ordered an air strike after an ambush in May last year.

While much of the information in the documents is already known, Whitehall insiders fear that the disclosure could overshadow progress being made in Afghanistan and co-operation between local authorities and Nato.

Mr Hague said: "I hope any such leaks will not poison that atmosphere and I don't think it will."

US national security adviser General Jim Jones said the material described a period during the administration of President George Bush.

Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned of greater Nato casualties in Afghanistan as violence mounts over the summer. The British death toll in the conflict now stands at 324.

The Taliban today claimed to be holding captive a US serviceman who strayed into their territory. Another man may have been killed in a firefight.

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