Shocking video has emerged of what appears to be the murder at point-blank range of an unarmed Afghan man by an Australian special forces soldier in 2012.

The helmet-camera footage that aired on Four Corners on Monday night shows part of a village raid in Oruzgan province in May 2012, when a man was spotted by the Special Air Services Regiment patrol scout in a wheat field.

The man was subdued by an SAS squad dog and was lying on the ground. He appeared to be carrying prayer beads in his right hand when the patrol scout, identified by Four Corners only as "Soldier C", called out three times to his superior officer, the dog handler, saying "Do you want me to drop this c---?

No answer was forthcoming, but the footage shows the soldier shooting the young man dead anyway from about two metres away.