♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ sas soldier: directly to the front. two guys moving right to left behind the wall. braden chapman: they're gonna look back and see that we were the guys in there murdering and invading and not there to do something that is honorable. mark willacy: they're australia's elite special forces, the lethal operatives of the special air service regiment, the sas. for more than a decade they were on the frontlines

of australia's longest war. braden: you try to look back at your career as try and be proud of it, but then you've got all these incidents. you see yourself as part of the bad guys. mark: tonight, the deadly operations in afghanistan with australia's secretive sas. [speaking foreign language] for f-- sake. yeah, yeah, get the f-- here. mark: revealed in never-before-seen footage obtained by four corners. for the first time a special forces operative who was on these covert missions speaks out about what he saw. braden: the guy had his hands up, and then it was almost like target practice for that soldier. he shot him, you know, twice through the chest, and then once through the head as he walked past him. mark: for years, the secrets about what exactly happened in the valleys, fields, and mud villages of afghanistan

have remained hidden. with a major inquiry about to report on suspected war crimes, four corners will tonight reveal the culture of impunity among some of our special forces, as well as proof captured on camera of a cold-blooded killing. mark: in your opinion, were war crimes committed in afghanistan by australia special forces? braden: yes, they were. you can't shoot unarmed people and not call that murder. ♪♪♪ [helicopter blades whirring] mark: afghanistan, 2012, the brutal conflict was

in its 11th year. braden chapman was on his first deployment. a signals intelligence officer fresh out of training with the sas, he was struck by a country mired in war. braden: i thought it was, like, a really beautiful country. where the rivers were was really green in the valleys, and i used to say to people it would be a great place for four-wheel driving and outdoor adventure if you didn't have all the war. mark: braden chapman would get to see much of the beauty of afghanistan from a black hawk helicopter. he would also see much of the war's brutality during his

braden: there's definitely a buzz of elitism, 'cause it is the best thing you could do for your career, to go to that unit, especially when you're a lower rank and you're actually gonna get to do a lotta hands-on stuff. you definitely feel confident with these guys. i never once felt like i was going out and i was unprotected. i never felt like i--we weren't gonna get through it. mark: it was braden chapman's job to find taliban targets by intercepting and tracking their communications. braden: if we were going out on a mission where we were chasing a mobile phone target, then i would be with either myself, or the other signals intelligence operator. we'd be with the teams, and we'd be going in close and tracking that phone. often, when they hear the helicopters coming in, they

would actually turn their mobiles phonesff. mark: within days of deploying with the sas in afghanistan, braden chapman got a sense of what was to come during a conversation with one of the squadron's senior soldiers. braden: i was at the same bench as him prepping my equipment, and he just kinda started some general chitchat, and then he said to me, "i hope you're ready and prepared for this deployment, because you need to make sure that you're okay with me putting a gun to someone's head and pulling the trigger, 'cause i don't wanna read about it in ten or so years." mark: what did you think when you heard that? braden: i knew he was a bit of a loose cannon anyway, but yeah, at the time i was just kinda like, "okay, that's how you're gonna be." ♪♪♪ ♪ so ♪ ♪ this is how an gel dies. ♪ mark: this is a highlights reel of 3 squadron's 2012

rotation in afghanistan, edited together and set to music by sas soldiers themselves. it's among more than ten hours of sas footage captured by the soldiers on their own cameras and obtained by four corners. ♪♪♪ mark: it gives a rare glimpse of the reality on the ground and how these elite special forces view themselves. it shows a brotherhood forged by firefights, and the adrenalin of daily raids and operations outside the wire. braden: when we'd go in, if we found a small cache in an area, and it was just in somebody's side room attached to a house, they'd often just light it on fire or blow it, depending on how much te they had.

and that would usually burn down the house or blow out a wall. mark: so, not exactly a way of winning hearts and minds, in your opinion. braden: no. sas soldier: f-- hell. i think i was a bit in the open there. braden: often they'd read out the numbers of how many cars they'd blown up, or dogs they'd shot was another one. they were pretty quick to shoot dogs. mark: and why were dogs shot? braden: there was a threat to our own dogs, so they were worried about that. but i did see them shoot dogs that were tied on chains, which were clearly not a threat. sas soldier: and back to you for stunts. sas soldier: kick the shit out of that c-- sas soldier: shut the f-- up.

shut up! mark: over time, braden chapman became disillusioned with the war and what the special forces were doing. [speaking foreign language] braden: we try and say that we're there to help, and the taliban are bad, but if we go in, and we start destroying infrastructure or destroying their private vehicles and burning down their homes, it doesn't really send the right meage. sas soldier: very f-- mogadishu, f-- smoke. braden: and as soon as they leave they're not gonna help us anymore. they're just gna run straight back to the talin, who usually are not doing that. mark: braden chapman says the information the sas relied on to capture or kill their targets was often vague. braden: we would get intelligence briefs. they would be saying stuff like, "you know, fist-length beard, wearing afghani clothes," just really basic descriptions of people, unless they had a photo, which they didn't always.

and more times than not they didn't. mark: so it could be anyone in the population. braden: yeah, no idea who it is, but most of the time it was a really simple description of the average afghani man. mark: by the end of 3 squadron's 4-month deployment in 2012, more targets had been killed or captured than on any previous australian special forces rotation in afghanistan. braden: we were pretty much out every day for four months straight. i can't remember the exact numbers, but at the time i remember someone saying that we captured the most people for an sotg deployment up umark: so you were busy. braden: we were busy. ♪♪♪ mark: for the australian military, the war in afghanistan was centered on one province: uruzgan.

for 13 years, the australians fought to stabilize this poor and mountainous region, losing 41 soldiers along the way. the special forces would do the vast bulk of the fighting and killing, conducting thousands of operations. glenn kolomeitz: the vast majority of our special operations soldiers are highly professional and quite frankly, remarkable men. highly trained, highly professional men of high integrity who have done a very, very demanding job for us in very arduous circumstances. mark: glenn kolomeitz was a military lawyer who advised special forces on the legality of their afghanistan operations. glenn: i was involved in planning day and night for daytime operations and night-time operations, and there was always an element out in the field. always. so, there was always some activity happening outside the wire.

there was a very high operational tempo whilst on rotation. mark: he taught them who they could lawfully target and who they were forbidden to kill, including people who had surrendered, or were wounded. mark: so, would you say that these special forces knew about the rules of war? glenn: intimately. mark: so, there's no excuses for committing any sort of breach outside the rules of engagement, or any crime for that matter. glenn: no excuse in terms of the training is provided, and the understanding, absolutely. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ mark: just weeks into braden chapman's deployment in early 2012, his patrol is going hunting. they're heading for a place called deh rawood, their target a taliban bomb maker. the entire operation is captured on a helmet camera worn

by one of the sas soldiers on this raid. what this video reveals is a deadly firefight at a taliban bunker that would go on to spark lethal retribution by one sas soldier. braden: i landed with one patrol ands we came up over a hill heard gunfire, and then from there we could see that the patrol that was walking across the front of a mud hut was getting shot at. when i came over the hill the soldiers looked like little ants running everywhere trying to get away. mark: the sas are accompanied by afghan special forces known as the wakunish. the australians call 'em wakas. braden: that patrol that came under fire, they had a wakunish with them. he was killed pretty much instantly and right in front of the entrance to the mud hut.

believe there were at least four people in there, maybe five, and there was one guy with a pkm who was laying in the entrance, and he was just firing out the entire time until they started throwing grenades in there. mark: one australian soldier wants to throw in a thermal grenade and destroy the entire structure. mark: leading the charge is an sas operator who we'll call soldier a. braden: even as other soldiers came in to assist and they had grenades with them, he was like, "give me the grenade." and they were handing 'em over to him, and he was finishing it off. and he was telling everyone else to get back. mark: why was he so fired up? braden: he started it, and he wanted to finish it. braden: i'm not sure what his mindset is, but it seems almost like a bloodlust once you get to that stage.

[machine gun firing] mark: one soldier wants to get an attack helicopter to send a hellfire missile into the bunker. mark: soldier a then begins firing through a hole into the bunker. mark: soldier a orders one of the sas corporals to throw in a thermal grenade. braden: once he got his thermo grenade in, it completely collapsed the mud hut, and from there, yeah, he just kept spraying. [machine gun firing] braden: they were no longer firing once the thermo grenade went off.

those things turn your insides to jelly. sas soldier: dusty, here. mark: the battle over, the sas medic, dusty, can finally get to the afghan wakunish soldier who's been shot at the front of the bunker. mark: with the dust of battle still in the air, members of the sas patrol on the ridge above pause to reflect on the battle. mark: the conversation then switches to soldier a, who led the assault on the bunker.

[helicopter blades whirring] mark: soldier a is apparently furious. one of his afghan comrades is dead. it's what happens next on a patrol to catch a taliban target that may constitute a war crime. braden: so, after we lost that waka, it was a few days later we went on another mission. i was with that soldier. it was his target. we went in. i confirmed that this afghani national was the target. i was going through the rest of his equipment just to see what else he had, and then that soldier, with a wakunish, they marched that afghani national who was-- i confirmed he was the target. they marched him about 50 meters away or so. then the soldi ordered the prisoner to kneel back

on the ground. he then motioned for the wakunish soldier to shoot him. the ldier kinda looked at him confused, asking--you know, wondering what he's telling him to do. and then he did it again, and then he understood what was happening. and then the soldier ordered the wakunish to execute him, so he just quick-burst straight into his chest area. mark: and killed the man. braden: killed the man. mark: and the man was handcuffed, plasticuffed? braden: he was still plasticuffed at that stage. mark: and you witnessed this? you could physically see this? braden: i could, yeah. mark: and what ds the australian sas operative say after this? braden: he said, "i had to give 'em a win." mark: what did he mean by that? braden: because they'd just lost one of their members,

give them a win. let them have something. mark: what are you thinkg? braden: at the time i was just like, "okay, we're executing people now?" ♪♪♪ mark: several weeks later, braden chapman is again in a black hawk heading out on a raid with soldier a who led the mud-bunker assault and who ordered the killing of the afghan detainee. ♪♪♪ mark: the patrol fans out, heading towards a compound. mark: a "squirter" is the nickname for afghans assumed to be enemy combatants who are running for cover. soldier a heads for the rget. braden: i was with his patrol again. we were moving through a village.

we were coming up on the target building. i didn't see him walk out of that target building, but he was about 10 meters away from it, walking from that direction across our position. when we got to within maybe 20 to 30 meters away, and he saw us, he quickly grabbed his phone from his pocket, and he threw it. and at that stage he stopped. he put his hands up just like that, and then just stood there. as we got closer to him, the soldier then just fired and t him twice in the chest, and then shot him through the head as he walked past him. and then from there he just moved on. mark: so, he shot a man in cold blood who had his hands up. braden: correct. yeah. i was only 5 to 10 meters behind him at the time and at the time

i was just like, "okay." the visual image to me was the guy had his hands up, and then it was almost like target practice for that soldier. mark: what is that in your books? braden: in my books it's murder. mark: after the killing, braden chapman was ordered to go through the dead afghan's pockets and to find the phone the man had thrown away. braden: that incident was pretty gruesome because another patrol joined us not long after, and they had one of their assault dogs with them, and it actually came and started chewing on the head of the man who'd been shot. and i remember looking to the dog handler, saying, "can you get this thing away from it?" 'cause it was pretty gruesome. and he's just like, "oh, let him have a taste." mark: just days later one of the sas videos captures members of 3 squadron discussing soldier a and other incidents involving the patrol.

mark: four corners can reveal that soldier a who shot the afghan who had his hands up is still serving in the special forces. mark: rumors and allegations of war crimes committed

by australian special forces are now the subject of a wide-ranging inquiry. it's being conducted by the inspector-general of the australian defence force, and aded by the new south wales supreme court judge paul brereton. for almost four years his inquiry has been looking into dozens of alleged incidents, an investigation that's had to penetrate the veil of secrecy around the special forces. glenn: we have obligations at international law, domestic law, and indeed moral obligations to not ignore these sorts of allegations. there is potential for a prosecution under--or certainly for charges to be laid under the war crimes murder provisions of the commonwealth criminal code. mark: the activities of braden chapman's squadron in afghanistan in 2012 are of key interest to the inspector-general. braden: it's definitely affected me. you try to look back at your career as--try and be proud of

it, but then y've got all these incidents and you know, you see yourself as part of the bad guys. i just feel if people don't come forward while this investigation's going on, then it's just gonna be swept under the rug again. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ mark: another incident that haunts braden chapman happened during a raid early in his deployment in march 2012. it involved the death of an elderly afghan man in a village called sarkhume. the sas was after the commander of a taliban bomb-making network. mark: what can you remember about the job before the killing? braden: so, we landed on the far side of the building we ended up processing people o just walking through the village there was a few--there was actually a public meeting going on, so we walked over.

the interpreter spoke to them. we moved on. we knew there was a couple of shootings over in the distance. mark: two afghans were killed by the sas patrol. defence investigators later concluded that one of the dead men had been carrying a grenade, the other an assault rifle. the afghanistan independent human rights commission began an inquiry into the sas raid of sarkhume. its investigators got a very different account. shaharzad akbar: according to the complaints that was registered to us, there were two civians killed in sarkhume and seven injured. of the two killed, the first person was killed--was first shot at and injured, and then arrested by australian forces. mark: that person was a villager called haji sardar. shaharzad: the complaint that has been registered with us is that haji sardar was, yes, first injured and then taken away for investigation and was-- died as a result of torture

during this investigation. mark: braden chapman was on the sarkhume raid. he's the only australian witness to speak publicly about what happened. braden chapman came upon haji sardar after the afghan had been shot and was being treated by an sas medic. he then saw the wounded man being taken away by an sas operator who we'll call soldier b. mark: where was he shot? braden: through the leg, but it was-- it wasn't life-threatening. and the medic, once he'd put bandages and stuff on him, he was good to go. mark: so, this guy's got a leg wound. it's been patched up. the medic says it's not life-threatening, there's no problem. what hpens next? braden: the senior soldier walked over, grabbed the afghani, and then moved him off down an alleyway. i saw him go into--i wasn't sure if it was a door. it was some type of doorway, but it could've been another alleyway. and then some time later he came back.

and our medic asked him like, "what happened? where is he?" 'cause he'd worked on him. he considered him his patient. and then he just said--just shook his head and said, "he didn't make it." mark: he didn't make it. braden: he didn't make it. mark: what happened then? braden: i know the medic was pretty upset, 'cause he kinda--he could-- he knew what had happened. mark: what sort ofiscussion was had about it, if any? braden: he was just saying that the man was--he was fine. there's no way he would've died, and he knew that the soldier had killed him. that was basically it. mark: villagers have told four corners that they heard haji sardar crying out and later found him dead with severe bruising around the chest. the afghan investigation found he'd been beaten to death. mark: what if i told you that there was a later defence inquiry into that killing and they found that that killing was totally justifiable?

what's your response to that? braden: i'd say that someone's lied giving evidence, 'cause there's no way that you can justify an execution. mark: do you believe there was a culture of covering these things up? it's not just the incident, but it's the cover-up. is there cover-up? braden: yeah, definitely. when you're back at the unit, people would make jokes about the size of the rug that they've swepeverything under, and that one day it'll all come out and you know, people are gonna be thrown in jail for murder or anything else that they've done. mark: for braden chapman, the death of haji sardar at sarkhume was like a prophecy fulfilled because of the soldier alleged to have committed the killing. bprepared for him to put a gun wto someone's head d pull the trigger, and he wathe same soldier who was violent to a lot

of other afghanis as well, so it didn't honestly surprise me that that had happened. mark: braden chaan says he saw soldier b punch a child in the face and confront anotheboy with a dog. braden: it was on top of a mountain, and there was just an old man and a young child up there and their dog. the dog was barking but on a leash and the--he told the boy to hold the chain up near towards the head so that he could hold it still, and then he shot the dog right in front of the child. mark: so, he shot the dog as the child was holding it? braden: yes. ♪♪♪ mark: later that same year, 2012, australian soldiers were out for blood. a rogue afghan soldier named hekmatullah had killed three of their comrades.

special forces soldiers from 2 squadron sas were going from village to village searching for him. mark: four corners has spent months collecting evidence on the ground in afghanistan about what happened. 2 squadron swept into the village of sola looking for hekmatullah. there they focused on the local mosque. rafiullah was just eight or nine years old at the time. he was inside the mosque praying with his father, the imam haji raz mohammad. [speaking foreign language] rafiullah: when my father finished his prayer, they kicked him in the head while he was trying to stand up. his turban fell down, and they stood him up. they tore his turban up into pieces and tied up the hands of the other people in the mosque. they beat me up, and they said, "why are you standing here? what did he give you?" i said, "he didn't give me anything." they beat me up very badly and told me, "go home.

why are you standing here?" mark: throughout the vilge men were rounded up by the australians. juma jan: when they came to the mosque they arrested us, including the mullah. he was handcuffed and blindfolded. noorullah: they were standing behind us. we were not allowed to talk. there was an interpreter with them. he was talking to us. guns were pointed at our mouths. mark: blindfolded, the men rounded up by the sas liened as the australians carried out their raid. juma: they were firing shots and kicking doors, so people didn't know whether it was a shot, or the door being kicked. mark: by the end of the raid haji raz mohammad and his son abdul jalil were dead.