Australia military admits shooting Afghan policeman

The head of Australia's Defence Force has admitted the military made a mistake when it said two Afghan policemen shot by Australian soldiers were not in uniform at the time, AFP reported.

But Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston said the Australian soldiers, who opened fire on the Afghans as they rode towards them on a motorcycle, did not know the men were police and were acting in self-defence.

Houston said the Australian military was wrong to state that neither man was wearing a uniform when they were shot at a checkpoint near the Tarin Kowt base in southern Afghanistan because one had been wearing a police shirt.

At the time, acting Chief of Joint Operations Command Air Vice Marshal Greg Evans said in a statement that the men "were not wearing uniforms and did not identify themselves as police members" ahead of the shooting.

Houston said late Monday that that statement was wrong.

"I will admit that a mistake was made early on. The initial press release indicated that the individuals didn't have uniform on," he told ABC television.

"After the fact we discovered that one of them was wearing a police shirt."

The Australian military is investigating the August incident in which one of the Afghans was shot 16 times and died and the other was wounded, Houston said, adding that checkpoint procedures were being reviewed.