Australian Special Operations Task Group - Helmet Cam Footage

On October 18 2010, Australian Special Operations Task Group in Afghanistan conducted one of their most successful operations against the Taliban to date.

Acting on intelligence that a number of high-ranking leaders would be in northern Kandahar, they raided a series of compounds in the Shah Wali Kot region.

Under heavy machine gun and small arms fire, members of the 2nd Commando Regiment, along with their Afghan National Police counterparts, cleared several buildings, evacuating more than three dozen women and children.

At least ten insurgents were killed in the operation, including high- and mid-level Taliban figures.

Several others were captured, along with a large number of weapons. There were no civilian casualties.

This footage, along with information about the results of the operation, was cleared by commanders on the ground and the ADF's headquarters in the Middle East, and sent to Canberra for release through Defence Public Affairs.

It was never made public.

Hungry Beast's sources inside the ADF say this is not an isolated instance. There are numerous examples of imagery and information from operations being cleared of operational security concerns by commanders on the ground in Afghanistan and sent to Defence Public Affairs but not made public.

This is a growing source of frustration for members of the ADF who feel that public perception of the conflict and our soldiers' role within it is being skewed by the control of information.

Every precaution was taken to ensure that revealing this footage would not impact the soldiers involved, or any current operation in Afghanistan.

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News & Politics

Tags:

• ADF
• ''Australian
• Spec
• Ops''
• SOTG
• Special Forces