Mark Nicol talks to Alex Diggins

The Daily Mail’s defence and diplomacy editor Mark Nicol discusses one of the most controversial stories to emerge from the conflict in Afghanistan – the investigation into SAS soldiers over allegations that they had executed scores of unarmed combatants. 

Nicol weighs the evidence for these apparent war crimes in Blades, the first full-length investigation of Operation Northmoor, the largest and most sensitive UK military police operation ever undertaken. Blades lifts the lid on events in Afghanistan, detailing the heroic efforts of the Special Forces in the country for the first time and revealing how government-imposed restrictions meant the enemy’s bombmakers could not legally be shot or detained for more than a few days. Failed by their government and their generals, soldiers faced an agonising dilemma: obey the rules and let colleagues and innocents be killed or enact frontier justice and face accusations of war crimes.

Drawing on exclusive interviews, including with an SAS soldier who pulled the trigger on these operations, as well as senior diplomats and service chiefs, Nicol gives an unflinching account of profound heroism in the face of state interference and a long-overdue defence of those who proudly protected their country.

Here, he talks to Alex Diggins, an investigative journalist, who has written for the Telegraph, the Sunday Times, Spectator and the Observer about foreign affairs.

Mark Nicol was born into an SAS family and has covered the Special Forces throughout his 30-year-long career. He is currently the Daily Mail’s defence and diplomacy editor. His previous books include Ultimate Risk (Macmillan, 2003), Last Round (Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 2005), Condor Blues (Mainstream, 2007) and Iraq (Mainstream, 2008). He is a television commentator on defence issues and has lectured at the Joint Services Command and Staff College.

This event is part of a series on the uncovering of public scandals and on campaigns against injustice