Australia To Send More Troops to Afghanistan

Australian Prime Minister John Howard said Aug. 9 he was sending 150 more troops to Afghanistan, amid an escalating Taliban-led insurgency in the country’s troubled south.

In a statement to parliament, Howard said that as suicide bombings and militant attacks increased, an Australian reconstruction team heading for Uruzgan province needed greater protection.

”Australia cannot and will not abandon Afghanistan. We need to remain committed to supporting this fledgling democracy,” Howard said. “The struggle against extremism continues.”

The reconstruction team, due to be deployed later this month, would be increased from 240 to 270 members, Howard said.

An extra 120 infantry, equipped with Bushmaster armored personnel carriers, would also be sent to protect the reconstruction effort, he added.

A U.S.-led coalition invaded Afghanistan and overthrew the Taliban in late 2001 after the September 11 attacks on the United States.

Five years on, it remains riven by violence and a growing drugs trade.
A bloody insurgency waged by the ousted Taliban regime, al-Qaida and other militants is gaining momentum in southern and eastern provinces, with rebels taking on NATO-led forces in full frontal battles and guerrilla-style bombings.

The growing violence in the south has cost over 1,000 lives so far this year, most of them insurgents.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force took over command of Afghanistan’s six southern provinces from a U.S.-led coalition at the beginning of this month. Nine of its soldiers have since been killed.

Australia currently has some 200 special operations forces soldiers in Afghanistan, plus 110 regular troops and two Chinook helicopters.
The 270-strong reconstruction team plus its infantry backup will join a Dutch-led reconstruction taskforce in Uruzgan.

Howard said the team would remain for two years, rebuilding the province’s war-ravaged infrastructure and training local people in various trades.

He said the government would review the security situation in the province after six months and change the taskforce’s structure if necessary.

”For Afghanistan, the path to security will be long and hard with many challenges lying ahead, but Afghanistan will not have to face these challenges alone,” said Howard, a close ally of U.S. President George W. Bush.

The opposition Labor Party said the government and its allies had taken their “eye off the ball” in Afghanistan, and as a consequence Australian troops faced a more dangerous mission.

Labor leader Kim Beazley, whose party opposed the Iraq war, said the Taliban and al-Qaida had been allowed to regroup as the U.S.-led coalition including Australia focused on toppling Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
”Serious errors were made,” he said. “As we now know, the ground was being prepared for the redeployment of troops in the direction of Iraq.”

The latest military deployment came as Australia announced the appointment of its first ambassador to Afghanistan since diplomatic ties between the countries were renewed in 2002.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said diplomat Brent Hackett, who has spent three years as deputy high commissioner in Islamabad, would take up the appointment in Kabul next month.

”It) is a further important step in the growing engagement between our two countries,” Downer said.

”The appointment also underlines Australia’s firm commitment to international efforts supporting Afghanistan’s transition to security and stability and to combating terrorism.”