A FOUR-month investigation has failed to resolve an incident in which special-forces troops allegedly cut off the hands of a dead insurgent fighter in Afghanistan.

An internal probe was launched soon after the battle on April 28 when four insurgents were killed by members of the Australian Special Operations Task group in Zabul Province east of their main base at Tarin Kowt.

The post-mortem amputation was reported by an Australian soldier.

Defence Chief General David Hurley announced the inquiry on May 8 and yesterday Defence issued a statement to say that the investigation was "ongoing".

According to well placed sources the hands were taken from one of the four dead insurgents and transported back to a forward operating base where finger prints were taken.

Australian units usually carry biometric kits that enable troops to record finger prints and iris scans on local fighters or suspects dead or alive.

In this case there was no kit so the hands were allegedly removed for identification to avoid transporting the entire corpse back to base.

During a patrol in 2011 News Corp watched as diggers finger printed the rapidly decaying corpses of suspected insurgent fighters killed the previous day during an air strike.

Afghan troops involved in the April battle did not raise any concerns about the mutilation of an enemy corpse which is regarded as acceptable and common conduct by local soldiers.

media_camera Australian soldiers are set to withdraw from Afghanistan shortly. Picture: Supplied

However, earlier incidents of burning corpses and urinating on dead Taliban by American soldiers caused deep anger in the wider Islamic community.

"The ADF also takes all reasonable steps to ensure its operations do not breach Afghan customs or cause offence by inadvertently disrespecting religious beliefs or norms," Defence said.

On May 8 General Hurley said that during an operation targeting an insurgent commander, "an incident of potential misconduct during the operation has been raised through the internal national command chain."

Defence issued another statement yesterday that ignored specific details of the allegations made by an Australian soldier and taken up by the chain of command.

"The ADF takes any potential occurrence of misconduct by Australian personnel very seriously," defence said.

"The ADF, in cooperation with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), immediately commenced an investigation into this incident when the matter was reported.

"ISAF has also informed the Afghan Government of the situation."

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said he had full confidence in Defence.

"If any matters have arisen concerning their conduct, I have full confidence in the chief of the defence's capacity to investigate," he said. "I believe we should wait for that investigatory process to reach a conclusion."

Removing body parts from fallen combatants is a violation of the laws of armed conflict and the incident comes at a sensitive time for Australian forces who are about to leave the country after a 10-year campaign.

In 2008 it was revealed that Australian forces had kept four suspected insurgents for 24 hours in a compound used sometimes to hold some of its explosive sniffer dogs which are considered unclean in Islamic culture.

It is understood the Australian Ambassador to Afghanistan, Jon Philp, yesterday met with officials from the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs to discuss the incident and the ongoing investigation.

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Originally published as Digger 'hand cutting' case unresolved