VOA News June 24, 2021 The United States is accelerating plans to relocate tens of thousands of Afghans who helped American forces during the nearly 20-year war in Afghanistan. A senior administration official told reporters Thursday that plans have accelerated in recent days to move Afghan interpreters and others who assisted U.S. forces, and their
By Phil Mercer VOA News June 7, 2021 SYDNEY – Australia’s most decorated Afghanistan veteran will deny alleged war crimes Monday at the start of his high-stakes defamation trial against one of the country’s biggest media companies. Ben Roberts-Smith will seek to prove he was unfairly portrayed in newspaper stories as having broken the moral and legal rules of war. He is seeking damages in Australia’s Federal Court from
By RFE/RL Gandhara May 25, 2021 Australia says it will close its embassy in Afghanistan this week, citing “an increasingly uncertain security environment” as international troops exit the war-torn country. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in a May 25 statement that the embassy in Kabul would close on May 28 and that Australian diplomats plan to visit Afghanistan
NPR: When it started, the boy had been dozing on a mat in a room crammed with family visiting for a wedding. When it ended, his uncle and five other relatives, including small children, were dead. Ras-Mohammad Dost recounts what happened late that night in February 2009 when Australian elite forces approached his family’s compound…
Ariana: An Australian court on Thursday said it will allow four Afghans to give evidence via video link in a defamation case filed by a former Australian soldier accused of being involved in killing civilians in Afghanistan, Anadolu News Agency reported. Click here to read more (external link).
Al Jazeera: They are Australia’s elite special forces. For more than 10 years, they were on the front lines of the war in Afghanistan. But explosive revelations expose a series of killings by some of these highly trained soldiers. In this revealing programme, a special forces operative who was on these covert missions speaks out
Ariana: Geng Shuang, China’s deputy permanent representative to the United Nations said on Thursday that all foreign forces in Afghanistan committing crimes should be brought to justice. The report stated that 19 Australian soldiers were involved in the killings however, none were identified but have been referred for possible prosecution. Click here to read more
The Guardian (UK): It’s nearly two weeks since Australian defence force chief Angus Campbell released the Brereton report, alleging war crimes perpetrated by Australians in Afghanistan. Two immensely difficult and challenging weeks not just for the ADF but for Afghan-Australians. Click here to read more (external link).
Ariana: A photograph obtained by The Guardian shows a senior Australian special forces soldier drinking beer out of the prosthetic leg of a dead Taliban fighter at an unauthorised bar on a base in Uruzgan province, in Afghanistan, in 2009. The picture of the beer swilling soldier comes amid a growing scandal following the release
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty November 23, 2020 Sharifullah Sharafat Abubakar Siddique TARIN KOT, Afghanistan — Mariam weeps at any mention of her late son, Rozi Khan. The Afghan grandmother, who goes by one name only, vividly remembers how Australian forces killed Khan, 22, in Sarkhum, their village near Tarin Kot, the capital of southern Uruzgan