Nato forces shot dead five civilians at 2010 Afghan protest, rights body says

▶ Report claims coalition soldiers fired on crowd hitting 11, not one as international body says

Afghanistan’s top human rights body found that five civilians were killed and six injured during a protest near a military base in September 2010, contrary to claims made by Nato at the time.

The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission documented the casualties from the incident at Forward Operating Base Mirwais in the Chora Valley, part of the country’s central Uruzgan province.

The base, 20 kilometres north-east of the provincial capital Tarin Kot, was picketed by protesters after rumours spread among local people that foreign soldiers there had been burning copies of the Quran. A subsequent investigation found that there was no evidence that any religious texts had been damaged in the base.

A three-minute video capturing part of the incident shows hundreds of men and boys, some carrying sticks, approaching the base before dozens of stones were thrown.

An Australian soldier is heard saying smoke grenades would be used to disperse the crowd before the video ends without any shots being fired.

Nato claimed shortly after the incident that one protester was shot by a member of its International Security Assistance Force when he “aimed an AK-47” at troops in the base.

A spokesman for the Australian Department of Defence confirmed to The National, that a soldier fired on demonstrators during the protest.

“Coalition soldiers, including an Australian, engaged the rioters in self-defence,” the department official said.

“An investigation by the commanding officer into the incident found that Australian and Coalition soldiers acted appropriately and in accordance with their rules of engagement.”

Asked about the five civilians killed and six injured as reported by the human rights group, the spokesman said the Australian military was “unable to confirm any fatalities from this incident”.

The description of the video and the associated human rights report were made public by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, which obtained a number of AIHRC documents.

The ABC was raided by the police shortly after the Australian government was re-elected in May this year. Officers seized equipment and documents associated with the broadcaster’s Afghan Files reports from 2017.

Richard Di Natale, the leader of the Australian Greens, previously told The National that the government “should be devoting more of its energy to uncovering the truth” about the conduct of Australian forces in Afghanistan, “and less raiding news agencies like the ABC for reporting on them”.

The national opposition’s defence spokesman, Labour MP Richard Marles, declined to comment on the matter.