British special forces are being investigated for war crimes allegedly committed between 2010 and 2013 in Afghanistan. A public inquiry is looking into the deaths of Afghans who were killed in suspicious circumstances, mostly involving detention operations that showed hallmarks of summary executions. The killings came to light because of whistle-blowers inside the military, combined with the tenacity of victims and investigative journalists. The scale of the alleged crimes is shocking – lawyers say there were more than 80 suspicious deaths in the time period of the inquiry – but for the families involved, the end may be years away, or may never come. In this themed report, Rachel Reid explores what is known about the killings and the failures of accountability, which resonate darkly with other incidents and with the behaviour of the ‘elite forces’ of other nations. The inquiry and the reporting around it raise questions about the true numbers of victims and the dangers of a culture of exceptionalism among special forces, which morphs easily into one of impunity.