Connect with us

Latest News

US warns war crime allegations could prevent work with Australia’s SAS

Published

on

(Last Updated On: June 1, 2023)

The United States has warned that allegations of war crimes against Australian soldiers in Afghanistan could prevent U.S. forces from working with Australia’s Special Air Service Regiment, Australia’s defense force chief said on Wednesday.

Gen. Angus Campbell told a Senate committee that he received a letter from the U.S. defense attache in Canberra in March 2021 suggesting the elite SAS may have been “tainted” by the allegations of war crimes in Afghanistan raised in an Australian war crime investigation report that was made public in 2000, Associated Press reported.

Campbell said “one individual” had his “posted position adjusted” following the letter.

The letter warned that the Brereton report, which detailed “credible information” that Australian soldiers had unlawfully killed 39 Afghan prisoners and civilians, could trigger a U.S. law that prevents the country’s military working with units linked to gross violations of human rights.

“I received a letter from the defense attache of the United States Armed Forces based in Canberra, to me, indicating that the release of the Brereton report and its findings may initiate Leahy Law considerations,” Campbell said.

Campbell said he did not believe he informed the defense minister at the time and had not informed the current defense minister, Richard Marles.

Campbell was quizzed by senators on why he had not advised successive governments about such a letter from Australia’s most important security treaty partner, AP reported.

Independent Senator Jacqi Lambie asked whether the government should have been advised of such a “pretty big matter.”

Campbell replied: “I think there’s a difference between ‘may’ and ‘does.’ So the defense attache was indicating that it ‘may,’ rather than it ‘does.’”

Campbell later corrected himself, telling the Senate committee that records showed he had informed the previous government’s defense minister in 2021.

The U.S. never applied Leahy Law restrictions to the Australian military and 12 months after the letter marked the “conclusion of the issue,” Campbell said.

Marles’ office confirmed that the current defense minister, whose government came to power in elections in May last year, had not been briefed on the issue.

Marles “is briefed on matters relating to his portfolio as they arise and as is appropriate,” his office said in a statement.

Police in March charged the first Australian veteran for an alleged killing in Afghanistan, three years after the Brereton investigation found that 19 Australian special forces soldiers could face charges for illegal conduct during the conflict.

Former SAS trooper Oliver Schulz, 41, was charged with the war crime of murder in the death of an Afghan who was shot in 2012 in a wheat field in Uruzgan province.

More than 39,000 Australian military personnel served in Afghanistan over 20 years until the 2021 withdrawal.

Latest News

ISIS-K leader reportedly living in Pakistan’s Baluchistan province

Published

on

(Last Updated On: March 28, 2024)

Sanaullah Ghaffari, also known as Shahab al-Muhajar, is reportedly the ISIS-Khorasan (Daesh) branch leader and is holed up in Pakistan, Reuters reports.

The 29-year-old took over as leader in 2020 and under his leadership the group has carried out extreme attacks as a means of recruiting, Reuters reported.

Reuters noted that little was known about Ghafari before the deadly 2021 ISIS attack on Kabul Airport, which killed 170 Afghan civilians and 13 American soldiers.

But after Friday’s deadly attack in a concert hall in Moscow, which left 139 people dead, Ghaffari’s group has come under intense scrutiny.

Reuters reports that Ghaffari is said to have been involved in several attacks in Afghanistan, Iran, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Pakistan.

Pakistani officials said months ago that Ghaffari had been killed in Kunar province in Afghanistan in June last year, but Reuters has reported that he did not die and instead fled to Pakistan and lives in the border province of Baluchistan.

Abdul Matin Qani, the spokesman of the Ministry of Interior of Afghanistan, says that Daesh has been suppressed in Afghanistan for more than two years and has lost its operational capacity.

The last attack carried out by Daesh in Afghanistan was the attack on the Kabul Bank office in Kandahar last week which left three dead and 12 wounded.

Continue Reading

Latest News

IPL: Sunrisers thump MI in record breaking match

Published

on

(Last Updated On: March 28, 2024)

It was raining records at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Wednesday with the hosts Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) clinching a 31-run victory over Mumbai Indians (MI) in Match 8 of the Tata Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024.

Sunrisers’ batting rewrote the record books on a batting belter after the posted 277 for three.

SRH now have the highest team score in the history of the IPL – beating Royal Challengers Bangalore’s (RCB) 263 for five from the 2013 season.

In reply, MI made a spirited effort, and at one stage, were contenders to do the near impossible. In the slog overs, the enormity of the target proved a bit too much, and SRH clinched victory, but not without numerous nervous moments.

To put into perspective the carnage we witnessed – Heinrich Klaasen’s 23-ball half-century was the slowest fifty of the SRH innings.

Travis Head, playing his first match for SRH, raced to the milestone in 18 balls. Abhishek Sharma got there even faster – in 16 balls – to record the quickest fifty by an SRH batter in IPL history.

While Sunrisers notched up the highest total in the 16-year history of the IPL, just as incredibly, Mumbai Indians almost paid them back with the same coin, their batters coming out with a nothing-to-lose attitude.

The sixes kept rolling off the Mumbai bats too, helping them keep up with the asking rate for most of the chase, eventually however, they ran out of steam and finished on 246 for 5, the highest IPL total in a losing cause.

As ESPNcricinfo reported, never were more runs scored in a men’s T20 match (523). Never were most sixes hit in a men’s T20 (38). At the end of the close to four-hour six-fest, only two bowlers returned with an economy rate of under ten an over.

Thursday, March 28 : Match 9

Thursday’s match at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur sees Rajasthan Royals go up against Delhi Capitals.

Fans in Afghanistan can tune in to Ariana Television to watch the match live from 6.30pm. Alternatively the match can be screened live on arianatelevision.com

Continue Reading

Latest News

Magnitude 5.2 quake jolts Afghanistan

Published

on

(Last Updated On: March 28, 2024)

An earthquake measuring a magnitude of 5.2 on the Richter Scale jolted Afghanistan on Thursday afternoon, the National Center for Seismology reported.

The quake was at a depth of 70km and epicentered in the mountainous north-eastern area of Ashkāsham.

The jolt was felt across the region including in Kabul, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan

There were no immediate reports of any casualties.

In October last year, over 2,000 people were killed when four 6.3-magnitude earthquakes struck in Herat province.

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2022 Ariana News. All rights reserved!