Dan Sabbagh Thu, May 28, 2026 at 11:01 p.m. UTC 4 min read Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. British troops in southern Helmand province, Afghanistan.Photograph: Marco Di Lauro/Getty Images (Photograph: Marco Di Lauro/Getty Images) Concerns about the number of Afghan civilians being killed by British special forces in the early part of the last decade prompted the country’s then president to make a “muscular” complaint to Nato commanders fighting the Taliban.