SAS troops fear murder prosecutions over operations, GB News reports

GB News reported that SAS personnel fear being prosecuted for murder over decisions to open fire during military operations. The channel displayed the next day's Daily Telegraph front page, headlined 'SAS issues warning Over troop witch hunt', and said troops were afraid to pull the trigger in case they were 'done for murder'.

The segment argued that special forces need to make split-second decisions on security grounds without fearing legal consequences. It said service personnel should get the benefit of the doubt when a decision was made in good faith and on good grounds. It also said high standards should be expected of troops and acknowledged past allegations about British forces in Iraq, while claiming most of those stories turned out not to be true.

On GB News, the presenter criticised what the programme framed as a witch hunt and suggested legal accountability should fall on the state rather than individual soldiers. He argued that the court martial system exists to stop wrongdoing, but that personnel following the nation's orders should not be prosecuted years later. The discussion also compared the treatment of elite soldiers to a Star Trek plot about a genetically engineered soldier imprisoned after a war.