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Aussie commander says job in Iraq is done

Australia's top military commander said yesterday the job of the country's combat soldiers in southern Iraq was done, bolstering a government decision to bring them home mid-year.

Ahead of weekend talks in Canberra with US Defense Secretary Robert Gates on the planned withdrawal of 550 soldiers, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston said Iraqi forces had not needed Australian backup for two years now.

"We have achieved our objectives in southern Iraq," he said. "It's time to leave. The job is done."

Houston, who has previously been critical of the Iraqi government's lack of will to take responsibility for their own security, now praises their commitment.

"The government of Iraq and its security forces have demonstrated a high level of resolve to work along side coalition forces," he said.

Iraqi security forces' capabilities had grown significantly through coalition training programs and new equipment, he said.

"I'm very pleased to say that the security situation in Iraq has improved significantly over the past 12 months," Houston said.

"Despite periodic escalations, there has been a downward trend in sectarian and other forms of violence in this period," he said.

Australia has around 1,000 troops in and around Iraq, and was an original member of the US-led coalition which invaded the country in 2003 to oust Saddam Hussein.

Most Australian troops are in the stable south, which has largely escaped the bloodshed in other parts of the country and which is said by Western nations to be a model for Iraqi security control.

Britain is also withdrawing some forces, but like Australia denies the draw-down represents a distancing from Washington over support for the war.

Australia's Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who won elections in November to sweep away almost 12 years of conservative rule, promised to bring home frontline troops amid polls showing 80 percent of Australians oppose Iraq involvement.

Instead, Canberra will send more military trainers to Afghanistan, where it has around 1,000 troops fighting Taliban militants alongside Dutch forces in the south.

With NATO alliance countries under pressure to commit additional troops in the south, Houston told lawmakers that Australian trainers would be embedded with Afghan security forces and could face additional combat risk.
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