Details of SAS personnel are among more than 100 Britons named in a leaked database of 18,700 Afghans, defence sources have confirmed. The accidental leak by a defence official also included personal information about MI6 officers, whose identities are normally closely guarded secrets.
The database contained names and email addresses of people sponsoring or linked to Afghan applications for relocation to the UK after the Taliban takeover. SAS and other special forces officers were involved in assessing claims from Afghans who said they were members of elite units 333 and 444, known as the Triples.
The Ministry of Defence obtained a superinjunction preventing disclosure of the leak, which lapsed on Tuesday after a High Court judge ruled the threat to the Afghans was no longer very significant. Defence Secretary John Healey issued a “sincere apology” for the breach, which he said included names of MPs, senior military officers and government officials in some cases.
The superinjunction was first sought by then Defence Secretary Ben Wallace in August 2023, after the MoD learned the data had been leaked to a Facebook group. His successor, Grant Shapps, maintained the gagging order while developing a secret relocation scheme for about 15,000 affected Afghans, costing over £2 billion.
Parliament’s intelligence and security committee will scrutinise the affair, alongside an inquiry by the Commons defence select committee. The MoD said it would give full support to the committees.
