AUSTRALIAN special forces in Afghanistan failed to check the identities of their victims to ensure the dead men were insurgents rather than civilians, according to a Defence Department inquiry into the killings in April of three unarmed men.

The internal inquiry, whose report was released yesterday, said that growing concerns about civilian deaths - and the tendency of the Taliban to claim that all victims are civilians - made it essential to try to identify victims.

''The issue of civilian casualties is a vexed one in Afghanistan,'' the report said. ''The willingness of the Taliban to claim [insurgents] killed during coalition operations to be local civilians … as well as the incidences of actual civilian casualties caused by coalition action, illustrates the need to quickly gain intelligence regarding the identity of FAM KIA [fighting-age males killed in action].''

The inquiry found that the Australians had been targeting a known insurgent at a house in southern Afghanistan and killed each of the three men amid concerns the men were adopting firing positions. No enemy shots were fired and no weapons or means of identification were found on the men. ''It has been difficult to determine with any certainty the details of the three, and it is unlikely that their identities will ever be accurately known,'' the report said.

During the operation, the Australians, who were on a joint operation in Oruzgan province with the Afghan Army, detained eight civilians. None of the detainees was asked to assist with identifying the three victims.

The report said the Australian soldiers acted lawfully and in self-defence during the raid but there were conflicting reports about whether the killed Afghans were insurgents. It found the men were - on balance of probability - insurgents.

''In the environment where possible civilian casualties are a sensitive domestic and international political issue, every effort should also be made to verify the identity of FAM KIA,'' it said. ''This would allow for a quick response to allegations of civilian casualties … Had the detainees been asked … the identity of the three people killed, it would have been easier (but by no means guaranteed) to establish at an earlier stage whether they were [insurgents].''

A separate Defence inquiry found that Australian forces were justified in attacking a group of Afghans suspected of planting roadside bombs in late April. Four men were killed and two wounded. The inquiry noted claims that the men were farmers doing night-time irrigation work but found they were likely to have been installing bombs.


Jonathan Pearlman
19th December 2009

Source: SMH