Sydney; 17 March 2020 (UMM): A video footage captured on the helmet camera of an Australian soldier in Afghanistan, obtained by Four Corners of Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC News), shows a Special Air Service (SAS) soldier shooting an unarmed Afghan.
The video shows SAS operator shooting on a bright day in May 2012 an unarmed Afghan man three times in the head and chest while he cowers on the ground. The killing was one of a series of cases uncovered by Four Corners that may constitute war crimes.
According to ABC News, the video, taken by the helmet camera of the patrol's dog handler, shows the SAS patrol disembarking from one of two Black Hawk helicopters before fanning out near the village of Deh Jawz-e Hasanzai.
Amongst the wheat, the SAS’ dog handler and the soldier, identified as ‘Soldier C’ by Four Corners, come across a bearded man being mauled by the dog, called Quake.
"Quake, leave!" yells the dog handler.
As the dog lets go, Soldier C trains his M4 assault rifle on the man from a range of between 1 and 2 metres.
The man rolls onto his back, his legs drawn up. In his right hand is what appears to be a set of red prayer beads.
"You want me to drop this c***?"
The soldier asks the commander a second time: "You want me to drop this c***?"
The patrol commander's response is inaudible on the video.
Soldier C fires the first shot into the Afghan man on the ground.
The Afghan man, 25 or 26 years old Dad Mohammad, is dead.
A former member of the same SAS squadron, Braden Chapman, who was on the 2012 deployment to Afghanistan and has been shown the vision, described the killing to Four Corners as a "straight-up execution".
"He's asked someone of a superior rank what he should do, but it comes down to the soldier pulling the trigger. It's a straight-up execution."
The killing of Dad Mohammad was investigated by the Australian Defence Force in the wake of a complaint from tribal elders.
But what the video obtained by Four Corners shows, and what ADF investigators were told by soldiers, are two very different things.
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