TLTP
\nCANBERRA
\nAustralia has issued termination notices to at least 10 special forces soldiers after the release of a report that found credible evidence of unlawful killings in Afghanistan, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) said on Thursday.
\nAn independent report published last week in redacted form after an inquiry into the conduct of special forces personnel in Afghanistan between 2005 and 2016, found that senior commandos forced junior soldiers to kill defenceless captives in order to \u201cblood\u201d them for combat.
\nIt said there was evidence that 39 unarmed Afghan prisoners and civilians were killed by 19 Australian soldiers.
\nNone of the 19 soldiers was identified in the report, which was written by a state judge appointed by the inspector-general of defence. The 19 current and former soldiers have been referred for possible prosecution.
\nAustralia sent troops to join US-led forces that tried to defeat the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan in the years after the extremists were forced from power in 2001.
\nAmid the immediate fallout, the ABC said 10 soldiers had been formally notified that they would be dismissed.
\nThe broadcaster did not identify any of the 10 but said all of them were witnesses or accessories and therefore not among the 19 referred for possible criminal charges.
\nThe Department of Defence did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
\nThe ABC said the 10 soldiers would have at least 14 days to respond to the termination notices. It did not say if any of them had legal representation.
\nAustralia\u2019s most senior military official said on Sunday the country\u2019s defence force must \u2018own\u2019 a recent report on soldiers committing crimes in Afghanistan and pledged changes to ensure that atrocities do not happen again.
\n\u201cI want the ADF (Australia Defence Force) to acknowledge that this is something we\u2019ve got to own because if we don\u2019t own it, we won\u2019t fix it and if we don\u2019t fix it, this horror may appear again and I just cannot accept that,\u201d Defence Force Chief General Angus Campbell told ABC television. \u201cI see layers of responsibility here,\u201d Gen Campbell said. \u201cI\u2019m determined to see deep, comprehensive and enduring change where it is needed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TLTP CANBERRA Australia has issued termination notices to at least 10 special forces soldiers after the release of a report that found credible evidence of unlawful killings in Afghanistan, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) said on Thursday. An independent report published last week in redacted form after an inquiry into the conduct of special forces […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-158854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-national"],"yoast_head":"\n