标签： Oceania

On a Friday in early 2026, Ben Roberts-Smith, Australia’s most decorated living ex-soldier, made his first court appearance via video link from a remote location to a small Sydney courtroom, standing silent as he faced unprecedented war crimes charges that have rocked Australia’s military establishment.

Weeks prior to the bail hearing, prosecutors had formally laid five counts of murder against the 47-year-old, all stemming from alleged atrocities he committed while serving as a Special Air Service (SAS) corporal deployed to Afghanistan on Australian national operations. Newly unsealed court documents, obtained and verified by the BBC, lay out graphic, detailed accusations of systematic war misconduct that have never before been tested in an Australian criminal courtroom.

According to the documents, the allegations span three separate operational missions between 2009 and 2012. The first incident unfolded in April 2009, when Roberts-Smith’s SAS team was called in to clear the Taliban-held Whiskey 108 compound near Tarin Kowt following an airstrike. Inside a hidden tunnel, troops pulled out two detainees, identified as father and son Mohammad Essa and Ahmadullah, both of whom were immediately restrained and cuffed. Prosecutors allege Roberts-Smith carried Ahmadullah, a disabled man who used a prosthetic leg, outside the compound’s perimeter, threw him to the ground, and fired multiple rounds from a belt-fed machine gun to kill him — an act witnessed by several Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel posted on outer cordon duty. Returning inside the compound, the documents claim Roberts-Smith ordered an inexperienced rookie soldier, anonymized as Person Four, to execute Mohammad Essa in an initiation practice known within the unit as “blooding.” After the rookie followed the order, both Roberts-Smith and the patrol leader documented the event as a successful initiation.

The second alleged killing took place in September 2012, two weeks after an Afghan soldier turned on his Australian partners, killing three and wounding two. Roberts-Smith, who had received Australia’s highest military honor, the Victoria Cross, just one year prior, led a search team to Darwan village that captured three detainees, including a man named Ali Jan. Court documents allege Roberts-Smith physically assaulted the handcuffed detainees during questioning before escorting Ali Jan to the edge of a 10-meter cliff. Even with Ali Jan cuffed and restrained by another soldier, Roberts-Smith kicked him off the cliff, causing severe injuries including broken teeth. The prosecution claims that after climbing down to the injured detainee, an unnamed soldier acting on Roberts-Smith’s direction shot Ali Jan dead. To cover up the unlawful killing, the team planted a captured handheld radio on Ali Jan’s body to falsely frame him as an armed insurgent. During an earlier civil defamation trial, Roberts-Smith denied the entire event, claiming no detainees were captured that day and no such cliff existed at the search site.

The final two murder charges stem from an October 2012 mission in Syachow village, where Roberts-Smith served as patrol commander. Official mission reports claimed four insurgents were killed in active combat: two inside a compound, and two more in an adjacent cornfield after they refused to surrender. Prosecutors say this narrative is a deliberate cover-up. A junior soldier, Person 66, testified that the two men in the cornfield were already detained and unarmed when Roberts-Smith ordered their execution. According to the court documents, a senior soldier shot the first detainee, before Roberts-Smith ordered the first-tour Person 66 to kill the second. After the shooting, Roberts-Smith threw a grenade into the cornfield to create false evidence that the men had been killed during a legitimate engagement. Forensic analysis of post-mission photos found ligature marks consistent with handcuff restraint on both men’s bodies.

Roberts-Smith’s military career began in 1996, when he joined the ADF at 18. He completed two tours of duty in East Timor before passing selection for the elite SAS in 2003, building a reputation as one of Australia’s most decorated serving soldiers by the height of his Afghanistan deployment. He stepped back from active service at the end of 2012 and formally retired from the ADF in 2015, six years before allegations of war crimes would lead to a high-profile legal battle.

In 2016, senior Australian military leadership launched an official inquiry into widespread rumors of war crimes committed by Australian special forces in Afghanistan, with media reports soon naming Roberts-Smith as a primary suspect. In 2018, he launched a landmark defamation suit against media outlets that published the allegations, but he ultimately lost the civil case. Transcripts of his sworn testimony from that trial have been entered into the current criminal case, where Roberts-Smith repeatedly denied violating the Geneva Conventions, claimed he knew killing restrained detainees was never permissible, and denied ever planting “throwdown” items to justify unlawful killings. Court documents note that Roberts-Smith has exercised his right not to amend or add to his previous sworn testimony for the criminal case.

Prosecutors have outlined consistent patterns across all five alleged murders: every victim was cuffed, detained, and questioned before being killed, all killings occurred when ADF forces had full control of the area with no active enemy combat ongoing, and every incident has at least one direct eyewitness testimony. Three of the witnesses are former soldiers who have testified they themselves participated in executing detainees under Roberts-Smith’s orders when he was their commanding officer.

To date, Roberts-Smith has not formally responded to the detailed allegations contained in the unsealed documents, and he has not yet entered a plea. At Friday’s bail hearing, Justice Greg Grogin granted the former soldier strict conditional bail, noting that the trial would not proceed for years, rather than weeks or months, due to the complexity of the unprecedented case. Australia has never held a war crimes trial in its history, and Roberts-Smith’s defense team has already noted the case falls into “uncharted legal territory” for the Australian judicial system. Roberts-Smith continues to vehemently deny all charges against him.

A new chapter in diplomatic efforts to stabilize the Middle East emerged Friday, as France and the United Kingdom announced they would spearhead a strictly defensive multinational task force to safeguard unimpeded navigation through the strategically critical Strait of Hormuz — a deployment that will only move forward once a durable regional ceasefire is finalized.

The joint confirmation came as British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron co-chaired a high-level international conference in Paris, convened specifically to address threats to global trade passing through the key shipping chokepoint. Hosted primarily via video conference, the gathering drew participation from 49 countries across Europe and Asia, with representation ranging from senior diplomatic envoys to dozens of heads of state and government. Notably, neither the United States nor Iran, the two primary opposing actors in the ongoing regional conflict, took part in the discussions.

The crisis that prompted the conference began on February 28, when Iran implemented a shipping blockade of the strait immediately after the U.S. and Israel launched military operations against the Islamic republic. The disruption sent immediate economic shockwaves across the globe, stoking widespread fears of renewed global inflation, disrupting global fuel supply chains, and raising alarms over potential worldwide food shortages.

Tensions eased somewhat during the Paris talks, however, when Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi announced via a post on X that the Strait of Hormuz would remain open to all commercial vessels for the duration of any Middle East ceasefire. The announcement was met with a measured positive response from global markets.

In his remarks following the conference, Starmer emphasized that the multinational mission would only activate once conditions on the ground allow for a stable deployment. “This will be strictly peaceful and defensive as a mission to reassure commercial shipping and support mine clearance,” Starmer stated, noting that more than 12 nations have already committed to contributing military assets to the effort.

Macron echoed the call for a permanent end to hostilities, saying that while leaders welcomed Iran’s temporary reopening announcement, they continued to push for “a full, unconditional reopening by all the parties.” The French president added that the verified opening of the strait makes the multinational mission even more critical: it will serve to consolidate recent diplomatic gains in the short term, and lay the groundwork for long-term stability in the corridor.

Macron stressed that the task force is explicitly neutral, and operates completely independent of the belligerent parties currently engaged in the regional conflict. Multiple European nations have already signaled their willingness to join the effort: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who attended the conference in person, confirmed Italy stands ready to participate, joining Macron and Starmer in emphasizing that a full ceasefire must precede any deployment. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, also present in Paris, noted that it would be desirable for the United States to join the mission at a later date.

The conference marked a key moment for European diplomatic and security leadership, coming after European powers were largely sidelined from earlier U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to end the conflict. The U.S. response has been guarded so far: in a post-conference social media statement, U.S. President Donald Trump said he had rejected an offer from NATO to assist with securing the strait, telling the transatlantic alliance to “STAY AWAY”. It remains unclear whether Trump’s comment referenced the Paris-led initiative, as NATO was not invited to or represented at Friday’s talks.

Starmer framed the mission as a critical step to protect the global economy, noting that “the world needs the Strait of Hormuz fully open because that is how we keep prices down for our people and stop the global economic damage” caused by the blockade. While he welcomed Iran’s announcement of a temporary opening during a ceasefire, he underscored that the international community must work to guarantee the opening is lasting and functional.

According to a statement from Starmer’s office, senior military commanders from participating nations will gather next week at the UK’s Northwood military command headquarters outside London to work out operational details for the proposed task force.

Hours after a fragile ceasefire took hold between Israel and Hezbollah, displaced residents of Beirut’s southern suburbs — a long-standing Hezbollah stronghold — began a tentative journey home on Friday, threading past crumpled building facades and mountains of concrete rubble to assess what remains of their lives.

Streaming back in private cars and on motorbikes, many carried only the few belongings they grabbed when they fled, their arrivals marked by equal measures of relief at the lull in fighting and heartbreak over the scale of destruction left by weeks of Israeli airstrikes that began on March 2.

Among the early returnees was 42-year-old Insaf Ezzedine, who fled the neighborhood of Hay al-Sellom and spent the duration of the conflict bouncing between makeshift street shelters after formal evacuation centers hit capacity. Speaking to Agence France-Presse on a Hezbollah-organized media tour of the area — where independent journalist movement remains restricted — Ezzedine described the overwhelming force of the bombardments that shook the district’s aging, densely packed residential blocks. As her young daughter clung to a plastic doll on the back of their motorbike, she voiced what many returning residents echoed: a desperate longing for lasting peace. “We hope the war will stop and we’ll all go back to our homes and live in peace,” she said. “We want to live with our kids in safety. Our own home was badly damaged, so we’re heading to my brother’s place now.”

The scope of damage is visible on every major thoroughfare in the southern suburbs. Piles of broken concrete, toppled solar panels and dented water tanks block roadside verges, while storefronts along main roads stand gutted, their metal doors blown off their hinges and shop windows shattered into shards. Occasional cars bearing Hezbollah’s yellow flags pass families walking and driving through the rubble-strewn streets, many loaded with whatever personal items they have been able to salvage.

Seventy-five-year-old Samia Lawand traveled back with her daughter and grandchildren only to confirm the worst: their home was too damaged to reoccupy. “We came to check on the house and pick up a few things, but we found the place was too damaged, so we’re leaving again,” Lawand said from the front passenger seat of her family’s car. Her 42-year-old daughter Mariam added that shattered glass and scattered belongings made the space unlivable. In one particularly striking scene on a major artery, a mid-rise building had its entire side torn away by a strike, leaving office furniture and even a complete dentist’s chair exposed to open air. Opposite a blackened, destroyed building just steps from a large portrait of Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem, the twisted wreckage of burned-out cars sits abandoned.

For 34-year-old Hassan Hanoud, who fled to central Beirut with his wife, children and mother to escape the bombardment, the ceasefire represented a chance to return to the only home his family has. “We left for the kids’ sake,” Hanoud explained, a young child resting in his lap as a young daughter behind him held a worn plush toy. “The last time we went back, all the doors and windows were broken, but now the kids just want to come home.”

In the Tahouitet al-Ghadir neighborhood, the first signs of slow recovery are already emerging. Shopkeepers have begun sweeping away debris to reopen their storefronts, and small groups of residents have begun to gather. Long-separated relatives hugged and wept when reunited for the first time since the escalation of hostilities.

Sixty-five-year-old Mustafa, who owns a local garage and spent the war moving between makeshift beachfront tents near the Beirut coast, was one of the first to return, arriving just minutes after the ceasefire went into effect at midnight. “There’s no better feeling than coming back to your area and your people,” he said.

But for many, the fragile truce comes at a devastating cost, bringing a complex mix of fear and cautious hope. Seventy-six-year-old retired soldier Ezzedine Shahrour, who fled the southern Lebanese town of Kfar Hammam and now has one son serving in the Lebanese army and another in security forces, has been begging his children to take him home, even as they warn the security situation remains unstable. “There’s fear and hope” after the ceasefire, he acknowledged.

Seventy-three-year-old Jaafar Ali, who fled the southern Lebanese city of Tyre with his family to shelter in Beirut, came to southern Beirut to check on the home of his relatives. He recalled fleeing so abruptly that the family left in their nightclothes, with no time to grab belongings. “We don’t know how we got out, and we don’t know what’s happened to the house,” he said. While he is relieved the fighting has paused, the loss has been overwhelming. “We’re happy about the ceasefire, but we’ve paid a high price. Our homes were badly damaged. We’ve lost a lot… I feel like crying. Thank God we’re still alive, but what about all the people who died under the rubble?”