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‘Communication issue’ before soldiers died

Australian Defence Force

Australian Defence Force

An Australian army officer who led a mentoring mission in Afghanistan concedes there was a “communication issue” prior to the deaths of three soldiers in an insider attack.

Queensland deputy coroner John Lock is considering the events leading up to the deaths of Lance Corporal Stjepan Milosevic, Sapper James Martin and Private Robert Poate at a patrol base north of Tarin Kot in August 2012.

The Brisbane inquest entered its second week on Monday.

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It has already been told that shortly before the attack an intelligence officer escalated the threat level at the Afghan-controlled patrol base, but the warning was not passed on.

Relevant information about the layout of the Wahab base, where the Australian camp was close to the Afghan soldiers’ camp, was also not passed on.

The former commander of the dead soldiers’ unit, Major Travis Gordon, told the inquest on Monday there had been a “communication issue”.

But he denied the 24-man Australian platoon was under strength and said prior to the night of the attack there had been no reason to suspect danger.

“The risk of insider attack had been assessed across the board, there was no specific threat at Wahab,” Major Gordon told the inquest.

Under cross-examination, he agreed the layout of the base made it more exposed to so-called green on blue attacks and that the lack of documentation about the remote base was a failure in the system.

The platoon was led by Lieutenant Dominic Lopez, who radioed Major Gordon on arrival to say the base was secure.

He did not mention that Australian and Afghan National Army forces could not be separated due to the layout of the base.

Major Gordon said he had not asked for a thorough brief from his lieutenant.

“I had other things that I was dealing with that were of a higher priority,” he said.

Representing Private Poate’s family, lawyer Peter Bodor asked: “You recognised in hindsight that you should have asked a lot more of Lopez then you did, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, well, of course – three soldiers were killed,” replied Major Gordon.

The inquest continues on Tuesday.

-AAP

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