London:  The Times reported that special forces commanders in the UK allegedly deleted computer files to conceal potential proof of the murder of unarmed Afghan civilians.

Authorities are accused of deleting the files despite being instructed to preserve information before the Royal Military Police visited special forces headquarters in London as part of an ongoing war crimes investigation.

The investigation was started in response to reports from The Sunday Times and BBC that Special Air Service units may have killed unarmed civilians in Afghanistan between 2010 and 2013.

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According to new evidence, rogue units allegedly committed up to 80 unlawful killings during separate six-month tours of the nation.

Afghan Saifullah Yar filed a lawsuit against the Ministry of Defence, alleging that the SAS killed four of his family members in their home in 2011 while they were handcuffed and hooded.

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In Operation Northmoor, the investigation into alleged war crimes that came to an end in 2017 with no charges filed, the Royal Military Police looked into more than 50 killings.

However, Yar's attorneys, Leigh Day, contend that the investigation's conclusion was a component of a "wide-ranging, multilayered" cover-up of unlawful killings, which started with SAS units planting weapons on civilians and filing false combat reports.

Additionally, "staff at (the UK headquarters) permanently deleted an unknown quantity of data from that server shortly before Operation Northmoor investigators arrived at (the UK HQ) to inspect it," according to a legal submission by Leigh Day to a new inquiry into the killings, in "direct defiance" of the directive to preserve computer data related to SAS activities in Afghanistan.

On Wednesday and Thursday, the Independent Inquiry Regarding Afghanistan will hold its preliminary hearings.

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The investigation will look into how frequently the SAS commits unlawful killings in Afghanistan as well as the Royal Military Police's subsequent investigation.

The MoD has submitted an application to permit military witnesses to present evidence in secret and behind closed doors.

A spokesman for the MoD stated: "It is not appropriate for the MoD to comment on cases that are within the scope of the statutory inquiry, and it is up to the statutory inquiry team, led by Lord Justice Haddon-Cave, to determine which allegations are investigated."