Australian authorities have arrested and charged the country's most decorated living soldier, Ben Roberts-Smith, 47, with five war crime murders allegedly committed during the war in Afghanistan.

Roberts-Smith, a former member of the Australian Defence Force, was arrested at Sydney Airport on Tuesday. His arrest has sparked outcry from a former Australian prime minister, who argued its unfair to judge the actions of "men in mortal combat by the standards of ordinary civilian life." X owner Elon Musk also weighed in on the arrest, calling it "insane."

The Australian Federal Police and the Office of the Special Investigator said Roberts-Smith is being charged in connection with the killings of five unarmed Afghans in three separate incidents between 2009 and 2012. AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett alleged that Roberts-Smith either killed the unarmed Afghans himself or instructed a subordinate to kill them. If convicted, Roberts-Smith faces life imprisonment on each charge.

"It will be alleged the victims were not taking part in hostilities at the time of their alleged murder in Afghanistan," Barrett said during a press conference. "It will be alleged the victims were detained, unarmed and were under the control of ADF members when they were killed."

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The investigation into Roberts-Smith began in 2021, according to Ross Barnett, director of investigations at the Office of the Special Investigator. Roberts-Smith received the Victoria Cross after storming two enemy machine guns during his fifth tour in Afghanistan.

Barnett said at the press conference that the investigation was "under challenging circumstances," given that some of the murders occurred well over a decade ago and investigators were unable to visit Afghanistan.

"We don’t have access to the crime scenes, we don’t have photographs, site plans, measurements, the recovery of projectiles, blood spatter analysis, all of those things we would normally get at a crime scene," Barnett said at the press conference.

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While Australia's current prime minister has yet to weigh in on the arrest, former Australian Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal Party Tony Abbott expressed his support for Roberts-Smith on X in a lengthy post.

"If Ben Roberts-Smith transgressed, why wasn’t this picked up prior to his gallantry awards and why wasn’t any culture of brutality towards prisoners detected by his more senior officers, and dealt with quickly, rather than being allowed to fester, as has been alleged, for over a decade?" Abbott wrote.

Allegations that Roberts-Smith engaged in war crimes began circulating publicly in 2017 and 2018 in articles published by The Age, the Sydney Morning Herald and The Canberra Times.

Roberts-Smith filed a defamation suit against the papers, which became Australia's most expensive defamation trial, but in 2023, a Federal Court judge ruled that four of the six murder allegations brought by the papers against Roberts-Smith were legitimate.

In one of the allegations ruled to have merit by Justice Anthony Besanko, Roberts-Smith allegedly marched a handcuffed Afghan man named Ali Jan off the edge of a 10-meter cliff. He survived the fall, but Roberts-Smith and his fellow soldiers walked down a footpath to meet him. Roberts-Smith then ordered a subordinate, known as Person 11 in court, to shoot him.

The High Court dismissed Roberts-Smith's appeal of the ruling in September 2025.

The criminal charges against Roberts-Smith stem from a joint effort by OSI and AFP. The two Australian agencies have conducted 53 investigations into ADF members tied to war crime allegations in Afghanistan. Ten of the investigations remain ongoing.

An Iranian man and a Romanian woman have been charged after allegedly unsuccessfully attempting to enter a nuclear missile base in Scotland this week, Police Scotland announced Saturday. 

The agency said around 5 p.m. Thursday, "we were made aware of two people attempting to enter HM Naval Base Clyde." 

"A 34-year-old Iranian man and a 31-year-old Romanian woman have been arrested and charged in connection with the incident. They are due to appear at Dumbarton Sheriff Court on Monday, March 23," Police Scotland said. "Enquiries are ongoing."

Fox News Digital has reached out to Police Scotland for further comment.

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Citing the Times, the Telegraph newspaper reported that the suspects were turned away from the base because they lacked the correct passes and were later arrested nearby for allegedly "acting suspiciously in the vicinity." 

HM Naval Base Clyde, commonly known as Faslane, is considered the primary base for the United Kingdom's missile fleet. 

The Royal Navy says the base is home "to the core of the Submarine Service, including the nation's nuclear deterrent, and the new generation of hunter-killer submarines." 

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The U.K. Parliament says the Royal Navy operates a fleet of nine submarines, and the entire fleet is based at HM Naval Base Clyde.

"Five of those are conventionally-armed nuclear-powered attack submarines of the Astute class. A further four are ballistic missiles submarines (SSBN) of the Vanguard class that comprise the UK’s submarine-based nuclear deterrent," it added. 

"Police Scotland have arrested two people who unsuccessfully attempted to enter HM Naval Base Clyde on Thursday 19 March," a Royal Navy spokesperson said in a statement to Fox News Digital Friday.

"As the matter is subject to an ongoing investigation, we will not comment further." 

Denmark prepared to sabotage Greenland’s airstrips using explosives and flew in blood supplies amid fears of a potential U.S. invasion earlier this year, according to a new report by Danish public broadcaster DR.

The measures were said to be part of a contingency plan that included deploying troops to the island in January with explosives for possible runway demolition aimed at preventing U.S. aircraft from landing, EuroNews said.

The measures were outlined in a Danish military operations order dated Jan. 13, which DR said it had reviewed.

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The preparations were made as tensions escalated over President Donald Trump’s statement that the U.S. should control Greenland for national security reasons.

Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen repeatedly rejected Trump’s demands to acquire the island.

DR said it based its report on 12 sources within the highest levels of the Danish government and military and sources among Denmark’s allies in France and Germany, the BBC said.

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"When Trump says all the time that he wants to buy Greenland … we had to take all possible scenarios seriously," an unnamed Danish military official told DR.

Denmark and several European allies also deployed troops to Greenland under what was a NATO exercise called Arctic Endurance.

In reality, according to the sources cited by DR, the deployment was operational.

Soldiers arrived equipped not only with standard military gear but also with the medical supplies and the explosives, the report said.  France, Germany and Sweden also took part in the January deployment.

Despite the preparations, Danish authorities sought to avoid escalation with Washington.

Trump announced a vague "framework" agreement on Greenland with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Jan. 21, though details remain unclear.

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At the World Economic forum in Davos Trump said, "I don't want to use force. I won't use force. All the United States is asking for is a place called Greenland."

On March 17, the commander of U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM), Gen. Gregory Guillot, said, "We are working with Denmark through the Department of State to expand some of the authorities that are in the 1951 treaty to give increased access to different bases across Greenland.

"But everything that we're doing through NORTHCOM is through Greenland and through Denmark."