In the Valley of Death

The nine men are buried in a stony field beyond an orchard of pomegranate trees in the village of Zambar, in eastern Afghanistan. Above their graves, multi-colored flags ripple in the mountain wind - deceptively cheerful reminders of the black day when Australia's Special Air Service came to this valley.

What happened during Redback Kilo Three's patrol is a war story the Australian Army would prefer to forget. During a gunfight many believe was the longest engagement by an SAS unit since the Vietnam war, the patrol's six members showed undoubted heroism. But their actions - which led to the deaths of those Afghan men - won no bravery awards. Instead they brought recriminations, investigations, and claims of command failures, insubordination, the killing of civilians, and the souveniring of trophies from the dead. Some troopers were disciplined, and the patrol leader resigned in disgust over what he believes was a cover-up.

The Australians' punishment is no consolation to villager Nan Gul, who was living in Zambar that day in May, 2002. "In our culture," he tells Time, "if you kill somebody, you must give them land, or a son and daughter in marriage to ease the burden of death." He said the same thing, he claims, to the Australian officer who arrived the day after the incident to apologize. "But we have had nothing from the foreigners, only empty promises."

While the dust was still in the air over Manhattan after the attacks of September 11, 2001, U.S. President George W. Bush was assembling a coalition to invade Afghanistan and crush the Taliban, who had provided sanctuary to the terrorists of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda. A key element of Australia's contribution to that coalition - a role known as Operation Slipper - was the legendary Special Air Service Regiment. Based in Perth, the regiment is the Australian Army's most highly trained and best equipped unit. It's said to cost more than $A1 million to train one of the 100 or so fighting men who make up each of its three regular, or Sabre, squadrons; they are experts in parachuting, deep-sea diving and waterborne assault, and can handle a variety of complex weapons with deadly skill. They are fit beyond belief, capable of roaming undetected deep behind enemy lines for weeks at time, living off the land while they gather intelligence or conduct guerrilla-style operations.

The first SAS contingent, One Squadron, arrived in southern Afghanistan in late 2001. Under the direction of the American generals overseeing the war, its job was to scour the rugged terrain on foot, locate al-Qaeda and Taliban forces, and help eliminate them. The squadron won high praise from U.S. commanders, particularly for its role in locating and orchestrating an attack on a senior al-Qaeda leader. When Three Squadron replaced One Squadron in April 2002, its members felt they had much to live up to. Redback Kilo Three's first mission, in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan, kept up the high standard. Led by a patrol sergeant with 12 years' experience in the regiment, the six men of RK3 were at their peak. Perhaps the only weak link was the sixth man on the patrol, a Green Beret soldier on exchange from the U.S. Some troopers thought he was not up to SAS standards - a shortcoming that became more obvious as time went on.

The first mission was daunting: to scale a range of steep mountains and set up an observation point overlooking a road the Australians had dubbed Route Titanium, which large numbers of Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters were using as a way to the Pakistan border. After an eight-hour journey by truck, the men had just three hours to climb the mountain under cover of darkness. For the next three weeks, they lived off the land. The survival skills needed for such operations take years to acquire - and are the source of one SAS nickname, "the chicken stranglers." According to the patrol sergeant, his men performed superbly. "It was considered one of the best patrols," he says. "Everybody else got compromised before it was time for them to withdraw from the area.''