KABUL (Pajhwok): Three incidents of alleged civilian killings by Australian forces during their mission in Afghanistan are the focus of an ongoing investigation.
The death of a boy and the wounding of his brother during a helicopter assault, the killing of a man and his son during a raid and the death of a businessman during an interrogation are being probed.
A newspaper reported the Inspector General of the Australian Defence Force had contacted Afghan human rights activists for any reports filed about the incidents.
The Australian said the shooting of a boy and wounding of his brother -- both shepherds with long sticks-- during an assault on a compound in central Uruzgan province was being investigated.
The soldiers reportedly mistook the sticks as radio antennas and the boys as spotters. As a consequence of the helicopter raid, one of the boys was wounded in the leg and the other was killed.
Similarly, the newspaper revealed, an Afghan businessman was killed at his compound in Tirinkot in 2011. Hayat Ustad was shot after he resisted arrest. But residents said he did not have a weapon.
During a 2013 operation in the same province, a man and his son were killed during a raid. The father was sleeping with his son in a bed when he was gunned down.