The Brereton report has uncovered credible evidence of 39 alleged murders carried out by Australian Defence Force personnel in Afghanistan.
But details of the alleged killings are not provided in full – or in some cases – at all. Only 21 alleged murders can be identified while the other 18 are missing – presumably redacted.
The nature of the report means it is not possible to conclusively match the cases with previously reported incidents such as the Four Corners video of an unarmed man being shot in a wheat field.
Accounts of Afghan civilians allegedly being gunned down in fields or shot in night raids have previously circulated in the media but the Afghanistan inquiry report uses sparse military language to summarise the shocking cases. It provides no details of exactly when, where, or how individuals died.
The report makes mention of credible evidence to support the alleged practice of “blooding” where junior soldiers were ordered by patrol commanders to shoot a prisoner to achieve their first kill but it provides no details of when and where this happened.
Mention is also made of an alleged incident reported during an earlier scoping inquiry where two 14-year-old boys had their throats slit – but the inquiry report does not say if these alleged killings are part of the 39 credible cases.
It also discusses credible evidence supporting the alleged use of “throwdowns”: radios or weapons which would be dropped beside the bodies of Afghans allegedly killed for no reason to implicate them as insurgents and a potential threat.
The report’s heavily redacted chronology details 21 alleged cases where there is “credible information of murder”.
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2007 Credible information of alleged murder of an insurgent who was hors-de-combat (wounded and under control) by a specified member.
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2009 Credible information of alleged murder of local nationals by specified members, with alleged complicity of patrol commander.
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2010 Credible information of alleged murder of persons under control by specified members with alleged complicity of specified patrol commander, including deletion of evidence to conceal.
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2012 Credible information of alleged murder of non-combatants by specified members.
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2012 Credible information of alleged murder of non-combatant by specified member.
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2012 Credible information of alleged murder of person under control at instigation with or with complicity of patrol commander and use of a throwdown to conceal.
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2012 Credible information of alleged murder of local national who was surrendering by and use of throwdown to conceal.
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2012 Credible information of alleged murder of … when he was under control by specified member and use of throwdown to conceal.
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2012 Credible information of alleged murder of non-combatants by or with alleged complicity of a specified patrol commander and the alleged complicity and use of throwdowns.
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2012 Credible information of alleged murder (shooting) of person under control by specified member with alleged complicity of specified patrol commander and use of throwdown to conceal.
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2012 Credible information of alleged murder (shooting) of person under control by specified member with alleged complicity of specified patrol commander and use of throwdown to conceal.
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2012 Credible information of alleged murder (shooting) of non-combatants when under control by specified members.
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2012 Credible information of alleged murder (shooting) of non-combatants when under control by specified members.
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2012 Credible information of alleged cruel treatment and murder of person under control and alleged use of throwdown to conceal.
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2012 Credible information of alleged murder (shooting) of persons under control … who had been separated from their weapons by specified members with alleged complicity of patrol commander.
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2012 Credible information of alleged murder (shooting) of local national by specified patrol commander and alleged use of throwdown to conceal.
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2012 Credible information of alleged murder of at least and possibly persons under control who had been separated from their weapons by members specified with alleged complicity of a superior whose identity can not be substantiated.
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2012 Credible information of alleged murder of persons under control by specified members with alleged complicity of specified patrol commander and alleged use of throwdowns on bodies to conceal.
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2012 Credible information of alleged murder of persons under control by and with alleged complicity of specified patrol commander and another member and alleged use of throwdowns to conceal.
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2012 Credible information of alleged murder of non-combatants by specified member.
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2013 Credible information of alleged murder of non-combatant who was under control by specified member with alleged complicity of patrol commander.
The year 2012 appeared to be the worst time for alleged war crimes with the chronology listing 17 alleged murders.
One of the 2012 cases could match an incident caught on a soldier’s helmet camera that sparked shock and outrage after it was aired Four Corners earlier this year, although there is not enough detail publicly available to be sure of this.
It showed an unarmed man lying in a field on his back with arms raised in the air as an Australian soldier trained his gun on him. The soldier is heard on the video asking his sergeant: “You want me to drop this cunt?”
The reply cannot be heard but the soldier then shoots the man dead as he lies non-threatening on the ground.
Following the program, the soldier was stood down from service and the case was referred to the Australian federal police by the defence minister, Linda Reynolds.
An inquiry report compiled by Defence at the time cleared soldiers involved of any impropriety.
Another report by the ABC last year focused on the deaths of two men at a village called Sarkhume in 2012. During the operation, Australian soldiers were alleged to have shot and wounded an elderly man who was then taken into a room and beaten to death.
The second man was attacked by a dog in a field and then shot. Locals said claims by Australians that the men were carrying radios or behaving in a hostile manner were false.
Many of the incidents in the Brereton report may also correspond to a series of secret internal inquiries or assessments published by the ABC in 2017.
The so-called Afghan files detailed the quick investigations into civilian casualty and other similar incidents in Afghanistan and reported that soldiers were cleared of any wrongdoing.
They did, however, reveal how the operations were regularly sparking complaints from relatives that their loved ones were being wrongly killed.
Nearly a year after they published the files, ABC journalists were raided and potentially faced prosecution over publishing classified information. In October, the government announced commonwealth prosecutors would not lay any charges against journalists over the publication.
