Remote control ... how the console operator flies a drone aircraft. The drone strikes are dubbed ''Kill TV'' or ''Taliban TV'' because soldiers watch live video feeds of bombs and missiles detonating, with one source admitting it is uncomfortable viewing: ''You can see everything.'' General Gilmore commands soldiers from the secretive Commando and SAS regiments who take part in the NATO-led campaign targeting insurgency leaders. Coalition special forces - including Australians - have tripled their activities, with 1879 missions and 916 ''targets'' killed or captured this year. In 2009 there were 675 missions with 306 killed or captured, according to figures recently released. One Australian soldier told the Herald what goes through his mind when he has an Afghan suspect fixed in the sights of his weapon. "We're the good guys, they're the bad guys," he said. ''The reality is this isn't worth any [Australian] life and if I think there is a clear moral case, then I ask myself, 'Where is that sword?' " Another soldier said their tactics were working. "Sometimes you pull the trigger because it's a small price to pay," he says. ''If he gets back, [innocent] people are gonna die."

Predator ... missiles can destroy targets 12km away. In a review of one disputed US drone strike, Kate Clark from the Afghanistan Analysts Network said there were ''systemic concerns'' over the intelligence used and inquiries into casualties did not give ''due attention to existing alternative accounts'' from locals. The ABC's Four Corners says it has documented several incidents in which Australian soldiers targeted the wrong people and civilians were killed. General Gilmore has not seen the ABC report, to be aired tonight, but has backed his soldiers. An Australian soldier on the ground in Tarin Kowt. Credit:Chris Moore "When they are on the ground, by themselves, and they have to make that split-second decision, cascading through their mind is this long line of training," he said. "[And] I don't worry because I have huge trust in our training and the judgment of the guys."

Critics of the ADF and NATO want more details on the soldiers rules of engagement and intelligence processes. ''If the ADF Special Forces believe that they are in full compliance with international law, the onus is on them to demonstrate that fact,'' said the former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killing, Philip Alston. ''And the risks that follow from such a carte blanche [secrecy] are not hard to see.'' Every night, dozens of elite troops from Australia, the US, Britain and Afghanistan knock down doors, fly to local domestic compounds and pounce on suspect four-wheel-drives. They act on an array of intelligence that is compiled and filtered to decide which Afghans the soldiers should detain or kill because they are suspected insurgency leaders, fighters or financiers. Military lawyers are also part of the process. ''We don't do assassinations,'' said another special forces source, ''but we won't risk thelives of our soldiers, it's not about capture at all costs.'' The Herald has been told the details of one drone strike, which has not been referenced on the ADF's website.

In 2008, an Australian special forces commanding officer ordered a strike on an insurgent leader and four armed men, seen planting a home-made bomb 20 to 30 kilometres from the Australian base in Oruzgan province. Permission from NATO command in Kandahar was rescinded several times as the insurgents' vehicles passed hamlets and small compounds, where the risk to civilians was considered too great. The strike was finally authorised when the Afghans stopped moving - ''they were having a smoko,'' according to one source. Australian soldiers watched as the first weapon appeared to kill four of the men. The fifth man was killed with a second strike, after he was seen injured by the initial attack. A warplane from another country was also involved, but did not fire any weapons. "The angst we go through with every single activity that may involve targeting or death, it is unprecedented," said one soldier. The US can have more than 50 such aircraft in the skies above Afghanistan at any one time. The Predator and more advanced Reaper drones can drop as many as two 225-kilogram laser-guided bombs and fire up to four Hellfire missiles from 12 kilometres away. The $28 million aircraft fly for up to 18 hours without refuelling, controlled by pilots on the US mainland. They are maintained in Afghanistan by private contractors.

Loading Sources say the technology helps the military avoid civilian casualties, with vision from the drones analysed for hours and sometimes days to confirm the target. Afterwards, video of locals rushing to the blast site is analysed, and phone calls and emails are intercepted to assess who was killed. The ADF won't release detailed rules of engagement, methods used to compile target lists, or details of drone strikes, but says its operations comply with international law.