WORLD / ASIA-PACIFIC
Australian 'Soldier Caught Using Dead Taliban Fighter's Prosthetic Leg to Drink Beer'
Published: Dec 03, 2020 04:48 PM Updated: Dec 02, 2020 06:48 AM
Last month, the Australian Army fired 13 servicemen in connection with a redacted version of the Brereton Report - a comprehensive, four-year investigation into alleged war crimes perpetrated by Australian troops in Afghanistan.

The Guardian Australia has revealed a photo of an alleged Australian special forces soldier drinking beer out of the prosthetic leg of a dead Taliban soldier in a bar in Afghanistan.

The soldier purportedly depicted in the photo is still in the military, according to The Guardian. The scene is taking place at the bar Fat Lady's Arms - an unofficial pub set up inside Australia's special forces base in Tarin Kowt in 2009.

Another photo purportedly shows two soldiers dancing with the leg, which is believed to belong to a Taliban fighter killed during an assault on two compounds and a tunnel complex at Kakarak in Uruzgan in April 2009.

Following the operation, the prosthetic leg was placed at the Fat Lady's Arms and travelled along with the squadron.

"Wherever the Fat Lady's Arms was set up, then that's where the leg was kept and used occasionally for drinking out of", one former trooper told The Guardian.

This comes two weeks after Australian Army chief Angus Campbell released a report implicating the Australian military of war crimes in Afghanistan. It contains data about 39 counts of murder of Afghan civilians and prisoners by elite Australian troops between 2005 and 2016.

The chief of the defence force has apologised to the Afghan people on behalf of Australia, describing the actions of the servicemen involved in crimes as "disgraceful" and "a profound betrayal" of the Australian military.

Australian Army veterans, however, have expressed anger over the report's failure to target high-level commanders, suggesting there was "no way" for the latter not to have been aware of the suspected war crimes being engaged in by their subordinates.