Australian SAS officers knew that soldiers under their command were using “throwdowns” — planting weapons on dead Afghan civilians to portray them as combatants — and did nothing to stop the unlawful practice, according to a previously unpublished military report cited by The Guardian.

The executive summary of a 2021 investigation into the “cultural context” of the special operations command by the inspector general of the Australian Defence Force, posted online this week, is scathing about the “breakdown of command” and the erosion of military discipline. An earlier Inspector General of the Australian Defence Force (IGADF) report, the Brereton Inquiry, made public in 2020, found credible information that Australian special forces personnel murdered 39 Afghan civilians and prisoners.