Junior soldiers were told to get their first kill by shooting prisoners, in a practice known as “blooding”
Weapons and other items were planted near Afghan bodies to cover up crimes
An additional two incidents could constitute a war crime of “cruel treatment”
In recent years, a series often-brutal accounts have emerged about the conduct of elite special forces units – ranging from reports of troops killing a six-year-old child in a house raid, to a prisoner being shot dead to save space in a helicopter.
Another incident involved two 14-year-old boys who were stopped by SAS, who decided they might be Taliban sympathisers.
The boy’s throats were allegedly slit and their bodies bagged and thrown in a nearby river.
NINE Australian troops – including one female soldier – take their own lives in just three weeks amid fallout from bombshell report exposing ‘war crimes’ in Afghanistan. At least 56 veterans have committed suicide since this year alone, up from 40 in 2019.
No senior officers investigated or punished. The dead soldiers cannot testify and the investigation will take years.
