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Systemic failures kill Australian soldiers in Afghanistan: inquest

Xinhua, June 24, 2015 Adjust font size:

Major systemic failures led to the deaths of three Australian soldiers in a so-called "green-on-blue" attack in Afghanistan in 2012, a coronal inquest heard on Wednesday.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported that the counsel assisting the coroner Peter de Waard argued there were six major systemic deficiencies which contributed to the deaths of Lance Corporal Stjepan "Rick" Milosevic (40), Sapper James Martin (21) and Private James Martin (23) of 3RAR Task Group, an Australian light infantry battalion, based at Brisbane's Gallipoli Barracks.

The counsel assisting the coroner said too much blame had been placed on the platoon leader Lieut. Dominic Lopez and Sgt. Adam Burke, all the while the Australian government and the Australian Defense Force had been more concerned with reputational management rather then learning from the deaths.

Last year, a brigadier told the inquiry there were no systemic failures, despite the deaths of the soldiers.

The soldiers were killed in August 2012 by Sergeant Hikmatullah, an Afghan National Army soldier in a green-on-blue attack at the Wahab patrol base in Afghanistan's Uruzgan province.

When the inquest convened in October 2014, the former platoon sergeant Burke said he and the platoon commander had been effectively blamed for the incident by a Defense Inquiry Officer's report.

Burke told the inquest he had received only limited training on insider attacks and was not comfortable mingling with Afghan soldiers.

"I'm not happy with them being here, we didn't like it, but we put up with it," Burke told the inquest.

At the time of the attack in 2012, Burke was behind an Australian army vehicle close to where the men were playing cards that night, when he heard the burst of gunfire.

Burke said he grabbed his weapon and fired 12 to 15 single shots, aiming at the guard tower manned by armed Afghan soldiers, however he realized the shots had not come from there and saw three of his men had been hit.

The inquest finished on Wednesday with the coroner releasing his findings at a later date. Endi