The United States warned the Australian Defence Force (ADF) that it may need to end its alliance with Australia’s Special Air Service Regiment because of allegations of war crime committed by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan, according to Wednesday testimony from General Angus Campbell to the Australian Senate.

Campbell stated that he “received a letter from the defence attache of the United States Armed Forces based in Canberra, to me, indicating that the release of the Brereton report and its findings may initiate Leahy Law considerations.”

‘Leahy Law’ refers to two statutory provisions that prohibit the US from assisting foreign security force units with credible allegations of human rights violations against them. Campbell detailed that the U.S. Government considered the contents of the most recent ‘Brereton Report’ ‘”credible information.” The report that indicated Australian Soldiers were involved in the deaths of 39 Afghan prisoners and civilians during their operations.

Page 29 of the Brereton Report  outlines how the actions of the soldiers did not amount to “incidents of disputable decisions made under pressure in the heat of battle.” Rather, they were instances “in which it was or should have been plain that the person killed was a non-combatant, or hors-de-combat.”

The Australian Federal Court’s recent guilty verdict against former soldier, Ben Roberts-Smith, for war-crimes committed in Afghanistan is likely to confirm the US’s decision to apply Leahy Law’s provisions to collaborations with the unit in question.