border region which had continued into May, however, by June the rivers had subsided and reports of incursions across the border from West Timor by pro-Indonesian militias were received, prompting 6 RAR to conduct extensive patrol operations throughout their tactical area of operations. Through a program of intensive active patrolling and tracking, surveillance, blocking and other security operations the battalion came to dominate the western border regions. However, during May and June there were a number of attacks on 6 RAR's positions. Over the course of the deployment the battalion was involved in nine separate contacts, with a number of 6 RAR personnel being wounded. In one of these incidents, Sergeant David Hawkings was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal following an attack on 'B' Company's base at Aidabasalala on 21 June 2000. As a result of these and attacks on other UN personnel including the attack that resulted in the death of a New Zealand soldier on 24 July, on 6 August RAR began a number of high-tempo operations to counter the activities of the militia in their area of operations. On 2 August, following intelligence reports that indicated that the militia were once again tracking the Australians, trackers found signs of further militia infiltration near Maliana. A platoon from 'A' Company, along with a number of troopers from the SASR were sent out to investigate, conducting a patrol about six kilometres from Maliana. Further signs of infiltration were found by the lead section and as the scouts tracked the footprints of the militiamen through a dried creek bed they discovered some empty food packets and old cigarette butts, confirming the presence of militia in the area. As the platoon harboured up for a short halt, a sentry on one of the machine guns that had been sited for all round defence spotted a group of three militiamen patrolling along the creek bed and interpreting this as an act of aggression under the ROE governing the deployment he opened fire, hitting the lead militiaman with about twenty rounds from the LSW, killing him. As the sentry began to engage a second target, a large of volume of fire began to pour in on the Australian position as a previously unseen group of militia joined in the engagement, returning fire while the first group began to withdraw. In an effort to cut off their withdrawal, the Australian platoon launched a quick