Australian minister says Afghanistan report made her ill

Australia's Defence Minister Linda Reynolds said she was "physically ill" after reading a shocking Australian military report into war crimes that found evidence that elite Australian troops unlawfully killed 39 Afghan prisoners, farmers and civilians.

Reynolds said the report was distressing for current and former defence force personnel.

"It is, I think, distressing for everybody who has or still does wear the uniform, but if you look at it the other way, the fact is we have faced up to this because it doesn't represent our values as a nation, it does not represent the values of the Australian Defence Force, and we have to tackle it, but to tackle it we have to be honest and it has to be transparent," she said during an interview in the Western Australian city of Perth.

On Thursday, the country's Defence Force Chief Gen. Angus Campbell said the shameful record included alleged instances in which new patrol members would shoot a prisoner in order to achieve their first kill in a practice known as "blooding."

He said the soldiers would then plant weapons and radios to support false claims the prisoners were enemies killed in action.

Campbell said the illegal killings began in 2009, with the majority occurring in 2012 and 2013. He said some members of the elite Special Air Service encouraged "a self-centered, warrior culture."

The chief was announcing the findings of a four-year investigation by Maj. Gen. Paul Brereton, a judge and Army reservist who was asked to look into the allegations and interviewed more than 400 witnesses and reviewed thousands of pages of documents.

Brereton recommended 19 soldiers be investigated by police for possible charges, including murder.

As well as the 39 killings, the report outlines two allegations of cruel treatment. It says that none of the alleged crimes were committed during the heat of battle.

Only parts of the report have been made public.

Many details, including the names of alleged killers, remain redacted.

The report said a total of 25 current or former troops were involved as perpetrators or accessories in 23 separate incidents, with some involved just once and a few multiple times.

It said some Australian troops would regularly carry "throw downs" — things like foreign pistols, radios and grenades that they could plant on those they killed so the Afghan civilians would appear like combatants in photographs.

The report said most of the alleged crimes were committed and concealed at a patrol commander level by corporals and sergeants, and that while higher-level troop and squadron commanders had to take some responsibility for the events that happened on their watch, they weren't primarily to blame.

The report paints a picture of a toxic culture in which soldiers were competing against those from other squadrons, accounts of deaths were sanitized or embellished, and many procedures to ensure safety and integrity had broken down.

The report recommended 19 soldiers be referred to federal police for criminal investigation. Campbell said he's accepting all the report's recommendations.