Sydney – Five Australian journalists killed in East Timor were deliberately targeted by Indonesian troops and not caught in crossfire as had been thought, a report said on the 22nd anniversary of the incident.

In an interview obtained by Australia's SBS Radio, an officer of a Timorese faction aligned to Indonesia at the time said the attack on the border outpost of Balibo was conducted with the sole objective of killing the journalists.

The 1975 storming of Balibo came as Indonesia was preparing to launch a full-scale invasion of the former Portuguese colony.

"Objectively, it was to hunt the journalists so they wouldn't witness the invasion ... the objective was not to arrest them," said the unidentified officer, who had access to the Indonesian command.

"It was a surprise attack. They surrounded them. They retreated but they couldn't escape. They stayed inside the house and there they were killed. Some were shot, others were beaten to death," he said late on Wednesday on SBS's World View programme.

The Balibo incident has been the subject of numerous unresolved inquiries in Australia, but Jakarta has always vehemently denied allegations the men were murdered by Indonesian troops.

Another inquiry launched on the 20th anniversary of the killings found the attack on Balibo was carried out under Indonesian command, but said it was likely the five lost their lives in the heat of the battle.

The officer from the Timorese Democratic Party (UDT), whose forces were colalborating with Indonesian troops, said they expected little resistance from the Fretilin freedom fighters at Balibo.

A total of 700 Indonesian troops attacked on four fronts and were met with just one Fretilin soldier who was quickly killed at his machine gun position.

The Indonesian government's insistence that the five died in crossfire between rival Timorese forces was wrong, the UDT officer said in the interview with a Portugese journalist, and neither could they have been confused with Fretilin.

"Crossfire would only happen if there was a little resistance to the invasion and anyway, they were well protected inside the house." Colleagues told him one of the men was shot in the back as he fled from the "safe house" and another's dead body was dressed in a Fretilin uniform and placed on top of a machine gun.

The five men killed were reporter Greg Shackleton, 27, sound recordist Tony Stewart, 21, and cameraman Gary Cunningham, 27, all of Channel Seven, and Channel Nine reporter Malcolm Rennie, 28, and cameraman Brian Peters, 29.