Australian special forces operating in Afghanistan are being scrutinised for their "alleged misconduct" as four insurgents were killed in the performance of their duty in Afghanistan, David Wroe a Defence Correspondent reports. The Special Operations Task Group is consisted of Australia's elite 2nd Commando and SAS regiments.

David Hurley, the Chief of the Defence Force, confirmed on Wednesday night that "an incident of potential misconduct" was being looked into against Australian soldiers in line with their performance of duty in a joint operation with Afghan forces that happened on April 28 in Zabul province. The operation was said to be targeted to a major insurgent commander "operating in and around Oruzgan province" where a large number of Australian troops were designated.

Mr Hurley explains that "During the course of clearing the targeted area, the force element positively identified several armed insurgents moving to gain a tactical advantage and due to the threat posed, the combined (Afghan National Security Froce) and (Australian Special Operations Task group) engaged and killed four insurgents."

Mr Hurley would like to keep the specifics of the misconduct charge confidential but confirmed that the accusation is under the jurisdiction of the "internal national command chain and now being investigated by the Australian Defence Force and the International Security Assistance Force - the international coalition fighting Afghanistan."

US General Joseph Dunford, commander of the international coalition, made statements strengthening the accusations against the Australian troops, saying that "it was ISAF personnel that were being investigated" dropping hints that it was, indeed, the Australians who were subjected to investigations and not the Afghanistan allies. General Dunford said, "ISAF will do a very thorough investigation and, if appropriate, we will take action against the personnel involved. We take all allegations of misconduct by our personnel very seriously."

ISAF depicted the operation as a "cordon and search" action to search for "a Taliban facilitator" within the Daychopan district. The Australian and Afghan soldiers were said to detain an AK-47 assault rifle, a Markarov pistol and other chemicals needed to make customised explosives.

It was to be remembered that a report made in 2012 was made public, detailing how Australian soldiers were caught sunbathing in tactical positions, hitting golf balls into Taliban territory and greeting helicopters wearing their flip-flops and T-shirts,"

The report written by Colonel Smith was only distributed March 2013 by Chief of Army Lieutenant General David Morrison.

Colonel Smith wrote in the report that younger soldiers were spoilt, needy and had a distorted and fanciful perception of wartime soldiering based on stereotypical images of special forces soldiers, and characters from films and computer games. The hyperbole surrounding the contribution of Australian soldiers in Afghnaistan makes soldiers feel entitled to be treated almost as Roman gladiators. They give the impression that they ecpect everyone, including their superiors, to lavish them with attention and unregulated time between tasks."

Lieutenant Genral Morrison defended his act of publishing the report in public saying that he "declassified and released the report because the military needed to be self-critical and ready to expose its own shortcomings."

It was only months after this report made it to the headlines and yet the Australian soldiers were once again facing charges questioning their behavior and attitude towards being soldiers.