Video shows soldier ‘killing’ civilian
An extraordinary video appears to show a member of Australia’s special forces in Afghanistan shooting a defenceless man as he lays cowering on the ground.
The killing is one of a series alleged to have been carried out by the country’s special forces that may constitute war crimes and are under investigation by the Australian Defence Force.
The footage, captured by the helmet camera of another soldier during a Special Air Service (SAS) raid on a village, shows the soldier shooting the unarmed Afghan man three times in the head and chest at close range while he lies on the ground in a field. A former SAS soldier who viewed the film described it as ‘‘a straight-up execution’’.
The video would seem to contradict an earlier military investigation into the killing, which found that the shooting of the 25-year-old man was lawful because he had been seen with a radio. No radio was visible in the footage shown by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, however, and the man was apparently holding only red prayer beads as he died.
The shooting took place within three minutes of the soldiers landing in helicopters near a village in central Uruzgan province in May 2012. The special forces member who fired the shots had told Australian Defence Force investigators that he had fired from 15m to 20m away in self-defence, but the video purports to show the victim, Dad Mohammad, having been brought down by a military dog, lying on the ground for more than 20 seconds before the soldier, standing over him about 2m away, shoots him three times.
The previously unseen video, broadcast on Monday night by the Four Corners current affairs programme, shows the SAS scout pursuing the victim into a field with the help of a military dog and handler. After the dog brings down the man the scout, called ‘‘Soldier C’’ in the programme, trains his M4 assault rifle on the fallen Afghan from a range of between 1m and 2m. After more than 20 seconds he turns to the handler and asks: ‘‘You want me to drop this c***?’’
The dog handler refers him to the patrol commander, who stands near by. The soldier turns to the commander and repeats the question. The commander’s response is inaudible on the video but Soldier C then fires a shot into the Afghan man, followed by two more.
A former SAS soldier told the programme that he had witnessed three similar incidents while in Afghanistan. ‘‘You can’t shoot unarmed people and not call that murder,’’ he said.
The Australian military did not directly respond to the programme’s questions about Dad Mohammad’s killing and other allegations of war crimes. It did say, however, that the inspectorgeneral of the Australian Defence Force was investigating ‘‘whether there is any substance to rumour and allegations’’ about possible war crimes in Afghanistan and said that an inquiry was continuing.
One of those allegedly implicated in the allegations of unlawful killings is Ben RobertsSmith, a former Australian SAS member who served in Afghanistan and was awarded the Victoria Cross. He has been accused of ordering the death of an unarmed Afghan civilian. He denies the allegations and is suing three newspapers over a series of articles in 2018.