Australia’s defense minister yesterday rejected criticism of the country’s special forces in Afghanistan after they were accused of detaining suspected Taliban militants in dog pens — a report that outraged a key Islamic community leader.
Australian Defense Minister Joel Fitzgibbon confirmed yesterday that four suspected insurgents who were arrested by special forces soldiers on April 29 were held for 24 hours in a compound occasionally used to house dogs.
Dogs are considered impure by observant Muslims and the soldiers’ actions prompted strong criticism from the head of Australia’s main Islamic group, the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils.
“It is quite appalling that the Australian soldiers are in any way caught up in the inhumane treatment of human beings — irrespective of who they are,” said federation president Ikebal Patel.
The revelation follows complaints by an Afghan soldier about mistreatment of the detainees, who were held in southern Uruzgan Province following a battle with Taliban fighters. An Australian Defence Force inquiry last week found that medical evidence and witness statements did not support allegations of abuse.
Christian Taubenschlag, a spokesman for Defense Minister Joel Fitzgibbon, said the minister would not be available to comment further on the incident yesterday. But earlier in the day, Fitzgibbon defended the soldiers’ actions, saying the detainees were held in the most secure place available before they were transported to a detention center in the town of Tarin Kowt.
“Our people were patrolling far away from our main base in Tarin Kowt near one of our forward operating bases. They did detain people suspected of the worst and most atrocious acts. And they detained them in the most practical way available to them at the time,” he told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio.
Fitzgibbon said it was misleading to characterize the holding facility as a dog pen.
“I’m advised that the compound is from time to time used to hold dogs, yes. Dogs are a very important part of our operations there,” he told ABC.
ANGER: A video shared online showed residents in a neighborhood confronting the national security minister, attempting to drag her toward floodwaters Argentina’s port city of Bahia Blanca has been “destroyed” after being pummeled by a year’s worth of rain in a matter of hours, killing 13 and driving hundreds from their homes, authorities said on Saturday. Two young girls — reportedly aged four and one — were missing after possibly being swept away by floodwaters in the wake of Friday’s storm. The deluge left hospital rooms underwater, turned neighborhoods into islands and cut electricity to swaths of the city. Argentine Minister of National Security Patricia Bullrich said Bahia Blanca was “destroyed.” The death toll rose to 13 on Saturday, up from 10 on Friday, authorities
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
DEBT BREAK: Friedrich Merz has vowed to do ‘whatever it takes’ to free up more money for defense and infrastructure at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz was set yesterday to defend his unprecedented plans to massively ramp up defense and infrastructure spending in the Bundestag as lawmakers begin debating the proposals. Merz unveiled the plans last week, vowing his center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) — in talks to form a coalition after last month’s elections — would quickly push them through before the end of the current legislature. Fraying Europe-US ties under US President Donald Trump have fueled calls for Germany, long dependent on the US security umbrella, to quickly
Local officials from Russia’s ruling party have caused controversy by presenting mothers of soldiers killed in Ukraine with gifts of meat grinders, an appliance widely used to describe Russia’s brutal tactics on the front line. The United Russia party in the northern Murmansk region posted photographs on social media showing officials smiling as they visited bereaved mothers with gifts of flowers and boxed meat grinders for International Women’s Day on Saturday, which is widely celebrated in Russia. The post included a message thanking the “dear moms” for their “strength of spirit and the love you put into bringing up your sons.” It
RSS