Four more UK soldiers disciplined after Afghan civilians killed or injured

The existence of the four new cases involving British troops was revealed by the armed forces minister, Nick Harvey, in a letter to the Labour MP Paul Flynn. Photograph: Andrew Parsons/PA Archive/Press Association Ima

Military commanders have disciplined a further four British soldiers accused of killing or wounding Afghan civilians.

The disclosures come at a time of heightened tension after a series of incidents involving foreign troops, and the killing on Monday of two British soldiers by a member of the Afghan security forces.

The Guardian has learned that a British soldier was given an unspecified punishment after an Afghan was fatally shot in the neck while praying in a field. In other cases, a soldier punched and knocked out an Afghan, and another fired a flare into an Afghan's face.

Nick Harvey, the armed forces minister, disclosed that the new cases brought to eight the total number of prosecutions of British troops accused of killing or injuring Afghan civilians since January 2005. Harvey revealed the existence of the four new cases in a letter to Labour MP Paul Flynn.

One disciplinary hearing centred on the death of the Afghan, said to be a 65-year-old migrant worker, who was shot in the neck while praying on his knees in a field in May 2009. Local witnesses believed soldiers from either the Welsh Guards or the Mercian Regiment fired the fatal shot, according to Harvey.

Some details of the incident have already been reported. According to one account, a Welsh Guards officer on a military base was loading his rifle before a patrol when he accidentally fired a shot. The platoon commander decided not to report the incident immediately because of the officer's rank.

Shortly afterwards, the Afghan was brought to the military base with a bullet wound to his neck that had paralysed him. The Afghan did not want to tell his wife as he would be ashamed if she saw him incapacitated, according to Toby Harnden, the author of Dead Men Risen, a book about the Welsh Guards in Afghanistan.

He was taken to hospital, but died the next day. Harvey has revealed that an individual was given an undisclosed punishment over the incident for negligently firing a weapon, but is refusing to explain who was disciplined or why.

The MoD said four Nato and Afghan army patrols had fired shots at the time the Afghan was hit. The ministry said that although an investigation by the military police "was not able to establish if UK forces were responsible for the Afghan national's death", one unnamed person "has been dealt with under military justice" for negligently firing a weapon. "It would be inappropriate to give any further details," said the MoD.

The second case centred on an incident in August 2009 when two Afghans were captured by the Afghan army. A soldier from the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers tried to question them about whether they had been planting bombs. "When the detainees failed to respond to his question, the soldier punched one of the Afghans causing him to lose consciousness," according to Harvey. The fusilier was "dealt with summarily for battery", Harvey said.

In the third case a soldier from the Coldstream Guards was "on sangar duty" – on lookout – when he aimed and fired a mini-flare into the face of an Afghan interpreter. The soldier was "dealt with summarily for negligently performing a duty", said Harvey.

A similar sentence was handed out to a marine from 45 Commando who negligently fired his weapon in February 2009, wounding an Afghan interpreter "before causing further injury to another Royal Marine", according to Harvey.

The four cases revealed by Harvey were heard behind closed doors in what are known as summary hearings.

According to the MoD, these hearings, in which commanders of military units decide on what sentences should be given to their subordinates, were held to consider less serious offences, while prosecutions of the more serious cases were tried in a court martial.

The other four cases have previously been reported and were heard in open courts martial.

In truncated accounts of the summary hearings, Harvey has not provided details of the sentences given out by the commanders. He said "results of summary hearings are not disclosed publicly" to protect the privacy of the soldiers, though the victims of a crime are entitled to know the outcome, he said.

Afghan leaders criticised the MoD for keeping the latest cases quiet. Abdul Mutalib, district governor for Marjah district in Helmand, said: "The people of Helmand haven't heard about all these things; if they did it would have a very bad impact on people. If the British did all this stuff it will be unacceptable for the people of Afghanistan. T his type of mistake is the reason people join the Taliban, and distance themselves from the president's government."

Ataullah Wakil, first deputy of the Helmand provincial council, said: "The foreigners over these 10 years have done a lot of damage to the innocent people of Helmand."

Documents obtained separately by the Guardian show the military police have started at least 126 investigations into alleged killings by British forces of at least 44 civilians and the wounding of 46 others in Afghanistan in the past seven years. At least three of the Royal Military Police investigations centred on allegations that British soldiers murdered Afghans.

The most striking allegation was that a Gurkha sliced off the head of a dead Afghan man with his kukri, a traditional Nepalese curved knife, to verify the victim's identity. The Gurkha was later cleared of removing the head "as a kind of trophy, or for any other such improper motive", according to prosecutors.

The RMP investigations span allegations that Afghan civilians have been bombed by planes, rockets, and mortar rounds, fired upon at checkpoints, shot while collecting grass and rocks near a firing range, and assaulted while in detention.

The Guardian is today publishing a list of the prosecutions and investigations on its data blog.

An MoD spokesman said: "Protecting Afghan civilians is one of Isaf's and the UK's top priorities and there are strict procedures, frequently updated in light of experience, intended to both minimise the risk of casualties occurring and to investigate any incidents that do happen."

All but one of the prosecutions have resulted in convictions. The Guardian disclosed in December that a British soldier was dismissed from the army and jailed for 18 months for stabbing a 10-year-old Afghan boy in his kidneys with a bayonet for no reason. The court martial heard that the boy was running an errand when he was bayoneted by Grenadier guardsman Daniel Crook, who had a hangover from a heavy vodka drinking session.

Following another court martial, two Royal Marines were dismissed from the navy for assaulting an Afghan civilian.

Meanwhile, prosecutors are considering whether to charge a British soldier serving in Afghanistan with murder for the first time.

Fusilier Duane Knott, a Territorial Army soldier, is accused of shooting dead an Afghan who was digging near a military base in Helmand in June 2010.

Knott, who denies wrongdoing, has reportedly said that he believed that the Afghan was laying explosives intended to kill British soldiers. Prosecutors are examining whether the man was an innocent farmer.

The Service Prosecuting Authority, set up in 2009 to conduct independent prosecutions of military personnel, is considering whether he should be tried by court martial.