“Possibly the most disgraceful episode in Australia’s military history” - The alleged Afghanistan war crimes that shocked Australia

By Dilip -

The Brereton report has uncovered credible evidence of 39 alleged murders carried out by Australian Defence Force personnel in Afghanistan. But details of the alleged killings are not provided in full – or in some cases – at all. Only 21 alleged murders can be identified while the other 18 are missing – presumably redacted. The nature of the report means it is not possible to conclusively match the cases with previously reported incidents such as the Four Corners video of an unarmed man being shot in a wheat field.

Accounts of Afghan civilians allegedly being gunned down in fields or shot in night raids have previously circulated in the media but the Afghanistan inquiry report uses sparse military language to summarise the shocking cases. It provides no details of exactly when, where, or how individuals died. The report makes mention of credible evidence to support the alleged practice of “blooding” where junior soldiers were ordered by patrol commanders to shoot a prisoner to achieve their first kill but it provides no details of when and where this happened.

Blog on the war crimes report

Mention is also made of an alleged incident reported during an earlier scoping inquiry where two 14-year-old boys had their throats slit – but the inquiry report does not say if these alleged killings are part of the 39 credible cases…

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/nov/19/the-alleged-afghanistan-war-crimes-that-shocked-australia

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