sas soldier war crime afghanistan
(Image: AAP/Australian Department of Defence)

As the 20-year war against the Taliban ends in inglorious defeat, a new book about Australian military engagement in Afghanistan reveals hitherto unknown details of alleged war crimes committed by elite soldiers. 

Rogue Forces was written by ABC journalist Mark Willacy, who won a Gold Walkley award in 2020 for a Four Corners investigation into alleged atrocities, suspected cover-ups and deep cultural problems within Australia’s special forces while based in Afghanistan.

The most shocking revelation was the unprovoked shooting of a disabled Afghan civilian by a group of soldiers, all of which is captured on video footage from a nearby soldier’s helmet cam. 

In it, a man called Soldier C is seen pointing his rifle at the local man, who is lying terrified on the ground, his fingers grasping a set of worry beads. Three times over a 30-second period, Soldier C casually asks his colleagues: “Do you want me to drop this cunt?” After someone says “Yes” he pumps three bullets into the man, killing him. 

The program caused shockwaves around the world and resulted in an Australian Federal Police war crimes investigation. It also sparked a line of investigation by the Brereton inquiry, the independent Australian Defence Force inquiry into war crimes in Afghanistan.

It found that a total of 39 Afghans had been allegedly murdered by Australian special forces in 23 incidents, and two more were cruelly treated.

After the program was broadcast, more SAS soldiers came forward with eyewitness testimony of other unlawful killings, from which Willacy has written this devastating book.

Rogue Forces describes a litany of war crimes: the killing of unarmed civilians, including children; soldiers compelling their juniors to shoot someone as a form of “blooding”; the extensive use of “throw-downs”, or putting a gun or radio on the body to pretend that the victim was armed and therefore a lawful target. 

Back at base camp, pressure would be applied on administration staff to delete photographic evidence of wrongdoing, contributing to a cover-up.

Willacy spoke to many Australian male and female soldiers and many Afghans who witnessed the alleged crimes. 

He quotes a man, Abdul Wali, who says he wants to avenge the unlawful killing of his father, no matter how long it takes: “Among us Pashtun we say, ‘The older it gets, the stronger and fresher it becomes.’ It does not fade away.” 

Willacy also interviews experts on wartime malfeasance, including Captain Roger Herbert, a US expert on ethics in war who says that the Taliban’s repeated violations of international law made a difficult war even harder to fight. 

“Blurring the line between soldier and civilian is an effective guerilla strategy,” Herbert said. “If counter-insurgents can’t reliably make this distinction, then over the course of a protracted campaign they will inevitably make mistakes and harm non-combatants. When this happens, insurgents are ready to leverage the wrongful killing or destruction for propaganda value.”

The Taliban have taken full advantage of this, he said.

For legal reasons the book does not name the main offenders, referring to them as Soldiers A, B and C. But one of the most devastating chapters is an interview with the wife of Soldier B, who is almost killed by him in an act of drunken rage at their home in Perth. After the police charge him with aggravated assault, the other members of the special forces persuade her to drop the charges, saying it would end his military career. He is immediately redeployed to Afghanistan, where he commits acts of brutal violence on the local people.    

Willacy ultimately lays the blame for this immoral culture at the feet of the Australian public. 

“We elected successive governments who sent these soldiers back and back and back to Afghanistan,” he says. “We pinned medals on them and sent them back again. The war broke them. And we sent them back again. Those governments, as always, escape the blame for conflicts like Afghanistan, for the civilian casualties, for the shattered lives of Afghans and Australians alike.”

And in the end, was it all worth it? 

The book includes a quote from British army chaplain George R Gleig on the first Anglo-Afghan war of 1839-1842: “A war begun for no wise purpose … brought to a close after suffering and disaster, without much glory attached either to the government which directed, or the great body of troops which waged it. Not one benefit, political or military, was acquired with this war.” 

Rogue Forces is published by Simon & Schuster and is on sale today, Wednesday, August 18.