Australian soldiers throw grenades into civilian compound. Woops, wrong house.

Three Australian commandos have been charged with manslaughter over the deaths of six Afghan civilians. You can almost see newspapers across Australia going into damage control. Headlines are making use of the word 'manslaughter'  and The Sydney Morning Herald is making as outraged that these diggers were even charged in the first place (Anger as commandos face manslaughter charge). 

This is the first time that the killing of civilians by Australian soldiers in a combat situation has come to light. Director of Military Prosecutions Brigadier Lyn McDade has prosecuted one man for manslaughter or dangerous conduct and the section leader with failing to comply with a lawful general order or prejudicial conduct. A third man, believed to be the lieutenant-colonel, is overseas and will be charged on his return.

There has been sparse mention of killing or grenades but that is what happened. The soldiers were targeting an insurgent leader who was not found at an initial compound. They moved to a second compound and exchanged fire for an extended time with an Afghan man, who was killed. The soldiers are adamant that it was necessary to throw a grenade into a room including one teenager, two younger children and two babies because they were under fire.

Soldiers state that the casualties were caused by the acts of an insurgent. But there was no insurgent. The Taliban commander that they were looking for, Mullah Noorullah, was killed several weeks later.

The family of the six people killed have said that Australian troops burst into their compound in the early hours of the morning and attacked using machine-guns and grenades. They accused the Australians - from 1 Commando Regiment, which includes many reservists - of shooting without identifying targets and then admitting they were in the wrong compound.

Defence Force officials have sent letters of protest to Brigadier Lyn McDade, the Director of Military Prosecutions, with some officers hoping the charges will be downgraded.

But it is unlikely Brigadier McDade will change her mind, and The Age has been told she is unclear why there has been a continuing delay for the public announcement of the charges.

The brother of Amrullah Khan, the man killed in the raid, said he wanted to skin the soldiers responsible alive.

"This was not an accident," Zahir Khan told The Australian. "They came at night and killed children. It was a ruthless incident. Six members of my family have been killed and they are talking about putting them in jail.  Bring these people to me and I will take off their skin while they are alive. "If they won't bring them to me then they should be put in jail." Mr Khan said that more than 18 months since the raid, no Australian military personnel had returned to the village.

So now the blame game begins. Of course, our valiant warriors can't be responsible for any misconduct, so lets watch as the onus shifts to the politicians.

Looks like another botched raid in a botched war.