War crimes: Australian troops unlawfully killed 39 in Afghanistan, defence force report finds
- Australia’s military said some special forces patrols took the law into their own hands, and will be referred to a special war crimes prosecutor
- Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani said PM Scott Morrison had ‘expressed his deepest sorrow’ over the killings
“Some patrols took the law into their own hands, rules were broken, stories concocted, lies told and prisoners killed,” Campbell said, apologising “sincerely and unreservedly” to the people of Afghanistan.
“This shameful record includes alleged instances in which new patrol members were coerced to shoot a prisoner in order to achieve that soldier’s first kill, in an appalling practice known as ‘blooding’.” The accused junior soldiers would then stage a skirmish to account for the incident, the report found.
The military’s own inspector general on Thursday produced a harrowing – and heavily redacted – 465-page official inquiry that detailed dozens of killings “outside the heat of battle”.
It recommended 19 individuals be referred to Australian Federal Police and compensation be paid to the victims’ families.