Australian veteran appeals against defamation ruling over killing of Afghans

Ben Roberts-Smith is appealing against the court ruling (Rick Rycroft/AP)

Australia’s most decorated living war veteran has lodged an appeal against a civil court ruling that blamed him for the unlawful killing of four Afghans.

Ben Roberts-Smith, who retired from Australia’s elite Special Air Service Regiment a decade ago, lost a landmark defamation suit on June 1 against newspapers that accused him of an array of war crimes.