Australia will send 150 elite troops to Afghanistan by September to fight a growing tide of insurgent-led violence spearheaded by al-Qaeda and remnants of the Taliban, the prime minister said yesterday.
The troops would comprise Special Air Service Regiment soldiers, commandos and support personnel, Prime Minister John Howard said.
"It's fair to say that the progress that's been made in the establishment of a legitimate government in Afghanistan has come under increasing attack and pressure from the Taliban in particular and some elements of al-Qaeda," Howard told reporters.
"We have received at a military level requests from both the United States and others and also the government of Afghanistan and we have therefore decided ... to dispatch a special forces task group," he added.
One year
The troops would be in place by September and remain in the country for a year, he said.
The Australian defense department would also consider sending up to 200 troops as part of a reconstruction team to Afghanistan early next year, he said.
Australia sent about 1,500 military personnel, including 150 Special Air Service troops, to support the US-led war that ousted the Taliban and al-Qaeda forces in late 2001, but currently has only one soldier there involved in mine clearance.
Howard said that the new deployment would have a separate Australian national command, although the task group would be under the operational control of US forces.
`Preserve'
"We think its important that the progress made in Afghanistan is preserved and consolidated and that the resurgence of violence and the resurgence of attempts by the Taliban to undermine the government of that country are not successful," he said.
The US-trained Afghan army now numbers 26,000 and regularly fights alongside troops from the 20,000-strong US-led coalition. A separate NATO-led force of 8,000 soldiers is responsible for security in Kabul and the nation's north and west. But the forces in Afghanistan are struggling to contain unprecedented fighting by insurgents that has left more than 700 people dead in three months and threatened to sabotage three years of progress toward peace.
US and Afghan officials have warned violence is likely to worsen before legislative elections in September.
Australia has resisted pressure from its allies in the so-called "coalition of the willing," NATO and Afghanistan to provide more military support since it withdrew most of its forces in late 2002.
Howard said Australia was now better placed to send soldiers because the army's peace keeping mission in East Timor had ended and was winding down in the Solomon Islands.
The announcement comes before the prime minister's departure tomorrow for a 10-day visit to the US and Britain.
Howard has denied media reports that the UK wants Australia to play a greater role in Iraq, saying the current commitment of 1,400 troops in and around that country was appropriate and no official request for more had come from London.
The opposition Labor Party has long called for more Australian troops in Afghanistan to fight terrorism but urges a withdrawal from Iraq.
PRECARIOUS RELATIONS: Commentators in Saudi Arabia accuse the UAE of growing too bold, backing forces at odds with Saudi interests in various conflicts A Saudi Arabian media campaign targeting the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has deepened the Gulf’s worst row in years, stoking fears of a damaging fall-out in the financial heart of the Middle East. Fiery accusations of rights abuses and betrayal have circulated for weeks in state-run and social media after a brief conflict in Yemen, where Saudi airstrikes quelled an offensive by UAE-backed separatists. The United Arab Emirates is “investing in chaos and supporting secessionists” from Libya to Yemen and the Horn of Africa, Saudi Arabia’s al-Ekhbariya TV charged in a report this week. Such invective has been unheard of
‘TERRORIST ATTACK’: The convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri resulted in the ‘martyrdom of five of our armed forces,’ the Presidential Leadership Council said A blast targeting the convoy of a Saudi Arabian-backed armed group killed five in Yemen’s southern city of Aden and injured the commander of the government-allied unit, officials said on Wednesday. “The treacherous terrorist attack targeting the convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri, commander of the Second Giants Brigade, resulted in the martyrdom of five of our armed forces heroes and the injury of three others,” Yemen’s Saudi Arabia-backed Presidential Leadership Council said in a statement published by Yemeni news agency Saba. A security source told reporters that a car bomb on the side of the road in the Ja’awla area in
US President Donald Trump on Saturday warned Canada that if it concludes a trade deal with China, he would impose a 100 percent tariff on all goods coming over the border. Relations between the US and its northern neighbor have been rocky since Trump returned to the White House a year ago, with spats over trade and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney decrying a “rupture” in the US-led global order. During a visit to Beijing earlier this month, Carney hailed a “new strategic partnership” with China that resulted in a “preliminary, but landmark trade agreement” to reduce tariffs — but
SCAM CLAMPDOWN: About 130 South Korean scam suspects have been sent home since October last year, and 60 more are still waiting for repatriation Dozens of South Koreans allegedly involved in online scams in Cambodia were yesterday returned to South Korea to face investigations in what was the largest group repatriation of Korean criminal suspects from abroad. The 73 South Korean suspects allegedly scammed fellow Koreans out of 48.6 billion won (US$33 million), South Korea said. Upon arrival in South Korea’s Incheon International Airport aboard a chartered plane, the suspects — 65 men and eight women — were sent to police stations. Local TV footage showed the suspects, in handcuffs and wearing masks, being escorted by police officers and boarding buses. They were among about 260 South
RSS