IRAN has reportedly asked the Taliban to hand over a bombshell list of MI6 spies and British special forces accidentally leaked by the UK government.
Fresh fears are brewing that the data breach could now become a tool for international espionage and terror.
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The shocking move was revealed last night amid claims Tehran is coordinating with Taliban warlords to get their hands on the so-called “kill list”.
The vast and highly sensitive database exposes more than 100 British officials and up to 25,000 Afghans who worked alongside UK forces.
Whitehall insiders are said to be “deeply concerned” by reports that Iran has set up a formal committee to hunt down British intelligence assets using the leaked file.
One senior Iranian official told The Telegraph that the Revolutionary Guard Corps had “formally requested” the Taliban share the list, adding that “MI6 intelligence assets will take priority”.
Read more on the leaked list
The explosive revelation threatens to turn a scandalous British blunder into a deadly geopolitical weapon.
For two years, the government fought tooth and nail to suppress news of the breach with a super-injunction.
But now it’s spiralling into an international crisis.
Iran‘s interest in the leak comes as Tehran scrambles for leverage ahead of nuclear negotiations with the West.
The Iranian official added: “On the Iranian side, there are also efforts to find the list, with a special committee assigned for it.
“There have been discussions on cooperation between Tehran and Kabul on this issue as it can help both countries for negotiations with the West.”
While the data may not explicitly label MI6 agents or special forces, intelligence insiders admit the codes used could still allow foreign actors to identify and target UK operatives.
The MoD warned : “It’s a longstanding policy of successive governments to not comment on intelligence matters but this once again underlines how serious the original data breach was and why the previous government have serious questions to answer about how this was ever allowed to happen.”
The Taliban claims it got hold of the list back in 2022.
Experts remain sceptical, pointing out that such claims are tailor-made for propaganda.
But the chilling reality is that targeted assassinations of Afghans linked to Western forces are already being reported on the ground.
Since the breach became public, there has been a wave of killings reportedly linked to the leak.
According to the Daily Mail, one man was shot four times in the chest last month, a woman was beaten in the street after her husband, a former interpreter for British troops, went into hiding in Iran.
And another former Afghan soldier told how his brother was executed in retaliation for his ties to UK special forces.
He said: “If or when the Taliban have this list, then killings will increase – and it will be Britain’s fault.”
The leak — a spreadsheet containing full personal data of 18,714 Afghan applicants to the UK’s resettlement programme — was mistakenly emailed in full by a British soldier in February 2022.
Instead of a trimmed list of 150 names, Afghan contacts were sent the entire file, exposing names, phone numbers, locations, and even family details.
It also included sensitive data on more than 100 British officials — MI6 agents, SAS soldiers, MPs, and even a Royal Marine Major General — who had endorsed the Afghan applications.
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The blunder was swiftly buried by a super-injunction in 2023.
And for nearly two years, the public was kept in the dark, Parliament couldn’t be told and journalists were gagged.
But in July, the wall of secrecy finally cracked.
The government abandoned the first super-injunction, revealing a £7billion rescue mission to relocate thousands of Afghans via secret flights and unmarked planes under Operation Rubific.
Some 4,500 were quietly flown into Stansted and housed in MoD accommodation.
Defence Secretary John Healey later admitted to Parliament that the list “contained names and contact details of applicants – and in some instances, information relating to the applicants’ family members.”
“In a small number of cases, the names of Members of Parliament, senior military officers and government officials were noted as supporting the application,” he added.
And yet, the government still hasn’t come clean.
Lawyers for the Ministry of Defence returned to the High Court just last week to defend a second injunction — despite the core details already being read into the parliamentary record.
Mr Justice Chamberlain, presiding over the case, promised to “scrutinise very carefully” any attempt to hold more of the hearing in secret.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer slammed the former Conservative government’s use of the courts to cover up the disaster.
He said “serious questions” remain over how the data was lost — and why the public and Parliament were gagged.
Healey, meanwhile, insisted the government acted to protect lives, not to hide embarrassment.
His predecessor, Sir Ben Wallace, backed that view, saying he made “no apology” for trying to prevent reprisals.
But with Iran now reportedly circling, and Taliban hit squads allegedly targeting refugees linked to the UK, the once-secret blunder is now a full-blown security nightmare.
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