952 Mangul Rahmi's compound is the southernmost compound and Shahzada Fatih's compound is the compound immediately to the north. They both form part of a group of compounds which were referred to in the evidence as the southern set of compounds because as one moves from north to south, which is the direction in which the SASR assault patrols moved, there is a gap or open area between a middle set of compounds and the southern set of compounds. The precise height of the "small rocky cliff" referred to in the Particulars of Truth was not established by the evidence. The applicant's evidence was that it was in the order of seven to 10 metres.
953 There was no challenge by the applicant to the evidence that Mangul Rahmi ordinarily occupies the compound he identified and farms the property on the other side of the dry creek bed. The same may be said of Shahzada Fatih and Mohammed Hanifa and the compound and property they identified. In any event, I accept the evidence of these witnesses to this effect.
954 There is a dispute as to whether there were any fighting age males in the compounds at the time they were cleared by the applicant's patrol.
955 2 Squadron carried out the mission to Darwan on 11 September 2012. The objective or person of interest for the mission was codenamed "Objective Jungle Effect". That person was a person known as Sergeant Hekmatullah who had been a member of the Afghan army. Hekmatullah had opened fire at the patrol base at Wahab on 29 August 2012 and killed three Australian soldiers and injured two others.
956 2 Squadron consisted of G Troop and E Troop. G Troop consisted of tactical headquarters and four patrols known as Gothic 1, Gothic 2, Gothic 3 and Gothic 4. The patrol commanders of these patrols were Person 7, the applicant, Person 55 and Person 57 respectively. The troop sergeant of G Troop was Person 26.
957 The troop commander of E Troop was Person 6 and the troop consisted of an NDS mentoring team operating as three patrols. NDS are Afghan Partner Force soldiers also known at the time as Wakunish or Wakas. The patrol commanders of the three patrols operating as part of E Troop were Person 6, Person 31 and Person 35 respectively.
The Background of the Afghan Witnesses
958 The Afghan witnesses gave evidence from Kabul by audio-visual link in the circumstances foreshadowed in an interlocutory ruling I delivered in the proceedings (Roberts-Smith v Fairfax Media Publications Pty Limited (No 10) [2021] FCA 317; (2021) 151 ACSR 79). The evidence
