London: Ministers have denied a "cover-up" of alleged war crimes involving the torture and murder of civilians by British soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Military detectives have reportedly investigated a 2012 SAS raid on a compound in Helmand province where three "unarmed" children and a young man were shot dead, as well as the alleged "daily" abuse of prisoners by the Black Watch regiment in Basra in 2003, and the fatal shooting of an Iraqi policeman in the same year.

Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State Dominic Raab on The Andrew Marr Show. Credit:Getty Images

According to BBC Panorama and the Sunday Times, leaked documents indicate the incidents were covered up by senior officers and only cursorily investigated by Royal Military Police.

Investigators on the Iraq Historic Allegations Team (Ihat) and Operation Northmoor - for Afghanistan - were then put under pressure by the Ministry of Defence to wind up the inquiries, it is claimed.