Decorated Soldier Arrested for Alleged War Crimes

0:00Ben Robert Smith, Australia's most decorated soldier and a former SAS operator got arrested at Sydney Airport on Tuesday. The 47-year-old faces investigation for allegedly murdering unarmed Afghans civilians during deployments from 2006 to 2012. This stems from the Office of the Special Investigator, which is digging into potential crimes flagged in the Inspector General's Afghanistan inquiry. Earlier, in a major defamation case, a federal court judge ruled on the balance of probabilities that Robert Smith was behind several unlawful killings. He's always denied the claims, but the judge confirmed details like machine gunning an unarmed prisoner during a 2009 raid and taking the man's prosthetic leg back as a beer mug. Another incident involved kicking a handcuff Afghan off a cliff and ordering his execution. Australian Federal Police Commissioner Chris E. Barrett and OSI Director Ross Barnett are set to brief the media this afternoon on the arrest and next steps.

1:02The case highlights ongoing scrutiny of elite forces, actions overseas with criminal charges now in play beyond the civil findings. Sydney News Today, Powered by AI Bringing You What Matters. I'm Corey with The Story.