Then there's a separate allegation of a dying militant being thrown off a cliff by a Special Air Services Regiment soldier and then shot dead. There is conflicting testimony as to whether this militant was a prisoner of war at the time of his death and the extent of his injuries if, or when, he was thrown from the cliff. And another allegation, reported on Monday by ABC journalist Dan Oakes, suggests the cover-up of the killing of a child by a special forces patrol in Kandahar in 2012. The circumstantial evidence gathered by Oakes includes photos of the dead boy, Khan Mohammed, off-the-record testimony from Australian soldiers and a photograph of an Australian Army GPS device apparently detailing the location of the death. Some of these cases are among those being examined by NSW Supreme Court judge Paul Brereton and the secretive office of the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force as part of an inquiry that's been running for a year after being commissioned by the Chief of Army, Angus Campbell. But nothing here is straightforward.

At what point does a decision made in haste, based on poor intelligence or due to a perceived albeit non-existent threat, cross a moral or legal line? And what if a soldier suspects, but lacks proof, that one of their own has acted with intent or gross recklessness in shooting a civilian posing no risk? Khan Mohammed. Credit:ABC News Can investigators, months or even years later, make a case for prosecution of war crimes given the difficulty of retrospectively assembling evidence? And what if the witnesses have post traumatic stress disorder? Serving and former soldiers, including Afghanistan veterans, told Fairfax Media that the Australian Defence Force is bracing for significant criticism from the Brereton inquiry. Whether it will be confined to a critique of unreliable intelligence, operational cock-ups and cultural problems or extend to full-blown war crimes is the subject of conjecture. Campbell and departing special forces chief Jeff Sengleman believe, according to those who know them, that accountability is vital, however unpleasant for a defence machine famous for its code of omerta, or silence. Brereton has a reputation for integrity, independence and thoroughness.

Got a tip about this story? Call Nick McKenzie confidentially on the signal app +61401877402 or email via this online encrypted, confidential whistleblower system "I have a great deal of faith [in Brereton and Campbell]. They have a genuine desire to get to the bottom of the allegations. Brereton will deliver a report based on the evidence," says one veteran of Afghanistan with legal experience. "But perhaps it will happen with less publicity than the media or the public would like." Still, intense public scrutiny is inevitable. Specific lines of inquiry being followed by the Brereton probe are being pre-empted by journalists, and there is increasing chatter in Australia's special forces community. Photographs from the scene of a shooting, obtained by the ABC, show the contents of the pockets of an Afghan boy named as Khan Mohhamed from an ABC News report. Supplied Credit:ABC

This talk is becoming louder as more SASR and commando veterans suffering PTSD debrief compensation lawyers and psychologists about the source of their trauma. All this is feeding into the Brereton inquiry. Having commissioned it, the ADF can now claim it acted on its own initiative. The example of the child being shot by commandos is a real one, given to Fairfax Media by a veteran, although it is understood it is not known to the Brereton inquiry. But Brereton is examining similar allegations, combing forensically over incident reports, witness statements and other material to test war crimes allegations involving a small number of Australian special forces members during their deployment to Afghanistan. The allegations being tested by Brereton range from the far-fetched to the believable. The official history around some well-known battles that took place between 2001 and 2014 are also being revisited. ABC reporter Oakes, who has visited Afghanistan three times, says he has spoken to 10 former special forces or other soldiers to inform his reporting. The Australian Federal Police is evaluating the incident but a senior police source said it is unlikely to take action due to the difficulty of gathering evidence.

The ADF says it has no record of the death occurring. The evidence publicly available raises several possibilities: a soldier accidentally killed Khan Mohammed, fearing he was an insurgent; soldiers recklessly or deliberately killed him with no lawful reason; or soldiers simply discovered his body. The failure to report the death may be telling, as it suggests someone wanted to avoid scrutiny. Oakes has also detailed a second incident, in which special forces soldiers are accused of shooting dead an unarmed civilian, Bismillah Azadi and his son, Sadiqullah, during a raid in Uruzgan province in 2013. The first incident has similarities to a case reported in 2009 by the authors of this article and which involved allegations by a defence official who served in Afghanistan. He claimed an attack in 2006 on a taxi, which left an Afghan man dead and a woman and child badly injured, was carried out by an Australian special forces patrol. The claims were also backed up by the victims' family. Defence again insisted it had no records of the incident. Asked about the cases on Monday, a Defence spokesperson said the department would not comment as the Inspector General Australian Defence Force was investigating rumours and allegations relating to the deployment of special forces in Afghanistan.

"Defence requests members of the media respect the integrity of the inquiry process, and to refrain from reporting information which is unsubstantiated," the spokesperson said. "Anyone with information or evidence relating to alleged, unlawful or inappropriate conduct relating to Special Operations Task Group deployments in Afghanistan is encouraged to bring it to the attention of the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force and/or the Australian Federal Police." The 2006 incident and those reported by Oakes share another similarity: no soldiers are prepared to go on the record. The officer who spoke out about the taxi incident, when approached recently to see if he had contacted Brereton, said he had been targeted since 2009 as a suspected whistleblower and wanted to leave Afghanistan in the past. The only former special forces soldier to speak out publicly has been Kevin Frost, who told the ABC earlier this year that he had witnessed the execution of a POW. Frost, who had aired grievances on Facebook prior to his interview, has PTSD and ice addiction problems. His credibility has been quickly dismissed by some in defence. "Even if you wanted to believe him, and I've no idea if he was telling the truth or not, you couldn't on his say-so alone," says a former commando.

"But he's not the only one making allegations." The Afghanistan veterans interviewed for this article describe a "deviation from normalcy" in the way Australian soldiers conducted themselves as the war dragged on and casualties and fatalities increased. Forty-one Australians have died in Afghanistan, and 261 have been wounded. "You get away with little things. Then you get away with a little more," says one veteran, who also stresses that almost all Australian soldiers did the right thing in extremely difficult conditions. "We didn't have 14 years of war. We had [multiple] … rotations and each rotation took a little from the one before about the increasing level of threat, and raised the bar." Australia's special forces operated under unique conditions.

"They had as much or more scrutiny because they were undertaking specific and highly planned tasks [like capture or kill missions]. But because they are so highly trained and professional, there was more permissiveness with what they could do mid-operation. "They were trusted to make decisions on the fly. It was very easy to escalate and then justify. There is a strong culture that it is better to be judged by 12 than carried by six. And you have little ability to verify events at the time," says an Afghanistan veteran who stresses he witnessed no war crimes. Also pursuing the issue is the doyen of Australian investigative reporting, Chris Masters. Masters got rare access to serving special forces soldiers and confidential records to write a book on Afghanistan, which is now being vetted by defence. If anyone in defence was hoping for a hagiography, they misjudged the relentless and stubborn Masters. He won't comment on what is in his book, but soldiers who know Masters predict an unvarnished and, in parts, damaging expose. It is likely to be the defining narrative on what went right and wrong in what became known as the unwinnable war. Brereton is aware his inquiry will be judged against the stories told by credible journalists and possibly by more veterans, if any decide to talk publicly. The other shadow hovering over the Brereton inquiry is the failed manslaughter prosecution of two commandos over a bungled night raid in 2009 that left five children dead.

The consensus, justly or not, in the defence community is that the case was brought unfairly by the director of military prosecutions, Brigadier Lyn McDade. Her supporters say she has been unfairly maligned. A lesson from this prosecution is that significant, compelling evidence and legal judgement is needed not only to sustain a prosecution but to deal with the inevitable political fallout. Retrospectively getting such evidence to the standard required for a prosecution is never easy when the suspected crime occurred on a battlefield and its details are held in the memories of soldiers with different perspectives and, in some cases, who are dealing with the trauma of their service. Brereton is actively seeking witnesses. And those who have already spoken to him say he appears driven to find the truth. Got a tip about this story? Call Nick McKenzie confidentially on the signal app +61401877402 or email via this online encrypted, confidential whistleblower system