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DAVID Petraeus would like more Australians to work alongside him as he assumes overall command of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars next month. General Petraeus said he had already asked Canberra to lend him several Australians. "I have already requested it. I need to be careful here,"... ...the four-star general said he wanted to thank Australian troops for their contribution to Iraq. "We are privileged to have them with us," he said. "They have initiative. They have a great work ethic and they have a wonderful sense of humour. "They don't hesitate to offer a view, even when not solicited....

SYDNEY, Australia - Australian special forces in Afghanistan detained four suspected Taliban militants captured in April in pens sometimes used to hold dogs, the defense minister said Tuesday. Many Muslims consider dogs impure and the head of Australia's main Islamic group strongly criticized the actions of the special forces. Afghanistan's ambassador to Australia Amanullah Jayhoon said the reports were troubling but stopped short of criticizing the soldiers. Australian Defense Minister Joel Fitzgibbon defended the special forces, saying the detainees arrested on April 29 were held in the most secure place available before they were transported to a detention center in...

AN Australian special forces soldier is fighting for his life and eight others are also wounded after they were ambushed overnight by Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan. The soldiers were attacked with rocket propelled grenades and guns as they were returning in vehicles from an operation targeting Taliban fighters in strife-torn Oruzgan province. One soldier is suffering ``life threatening'' wounds, five others have serious injuries and three have ``slight wounds,'' a Defence Department spokeswoman said this morning. It is the highest number of casualties Australian troops had experienced in a single incident since the Vietnam war, defence spokesman brigadier Brigadier Brian...

The army is about to undergo its biggest organisational shake-up in 35 years as it prepares for a future in which there will be less emphasis on killing people. New Chief of Army, Lieutenant-General Ken Gillespie, has outlined a series of changes to higher command under the ''Adaptive Army'' initiative. He said the army had too many headquarters between units and high command. ''This slows down decision cycles, constricts the passage of information in an age of email and Blackberries, and the sharing of lessons learned,'' he said. General Gillespie said the past decade's high tempo of operations had shown...

AUSTRALIAN special forces soldiers have killed a senior Taliban commander responsible for co-ordinating attacks on government facilities in Afghanistan's Oruzgan province. Australian troops spotted Mullah Akhtar Mohammed and his armed protection party in a remote area of Oruzgan last week, Defence said today. The special operations task group (SOTG) patrol kept watch and, after confirming there were no non-combatants in the area, called in an airstrike, defence spokesman Brigadier Brian Dawson said.

CHRIS Doran (Letters, 1/8) is entitled to his view, but he gets just about everything wrong about my account of the Iraq war... The assault was neither disproportionate nor was it indiscriminate; it was conducted strictly in accordance with the laws of armed conflict and undertaken to remove a safe haven for terrorists/insurgents whose crimes against the people we have publicly documented... White phosphorous is as terrible as any battlefield weapon but it is not a chemical weapon and is not illegal if used against enemy forces as it was in Fallujah... Far from closing down Fallujah’s hospital, the coalition...

AT 6.15am, Private Ray Johnson woke, pushed back his camouflage-print doona and got up. It was already hot, despite the constant, noisy work of the airconditioner above his bed. He showered and, when he got back to the room, woke the other two men sleeping in the bunks beside the door. They went quickly through their morning routine: wash, dress, webbing, weapons, helmet, out. Sharing a space this small with two other blokes, each learned to live without getting on the others' nerves. It was just another day. Another eight hours of guard duty, rotating around different positions at the...

THE Australian commando killed by a bomb in Afghanistan overnight has been remembered for his humour, integrity and dedication as a soldier. Signaller Sean McCarthy, 25, a member of the Perth-based Special Air Service Regiment, was killed yesterday when his vehicle struck a roadside bomb in Kunar province, on the border with Pakistan. Two other commandos were injured in the attack. Signaller McCarthy is the sixth Australian soldier to die in Afghanistan since 2002, and the second this year. Kevin Rudd, who is attending the G8 summit in Japan, described the death as a “terrible loss to his family, the...

THE former high school of a Gold Coast soldier killed by a roadside bombing in Afghanistan has remembered him as a vibrant young man with a great sense of humour. Signaller Sean McCarthy, 25, was killed yesterday. Signaller McCarthy was born in New Zealand but was raised on the Gold Coast. He attended Trinity Lutheran College, Ashmore, before joining the ADF in 2001. His various postings before joining the SAS last year included a spell in Toowoomba. He is the sixth Australian soldier to die in Afghanistan since 2002 and the second this year. McCarthy's old high school today paid...

AN Australian Special Forces soldier, who was injured in Afghanistan after his vehicle was hit by an insurgent improvised explosive device (IED) late last month, has returned to Australia, Defence said. Two soldiers were injured in the blast which took place during a Special Operations Task Group (SOTG) patrol returning from a successful clearance operation when the attack occurred. The second soldier was slightly wounded in the explosion. Fellow soldiers provided immediate first aid before both soldiers were flown by helicopter to a nearby International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) medical facility, defence force spokesman Brigadier Brian Dawson said. "The medical...

WHEN Peter Leahy joined the Australian Army 37 years ago, our soldiers were highly proficient in counterinsurgency warfare. Coming out of the New Guinea campaign in World War II, the army had been engaged continuously in unconventional conflict, including the Malayan emergency in the 1950s and confrontation with Indonesia in the early 1960s, followed by Vietnam. Nearly four decades on, the army is back in the counterinsurgency game in Afghanistan, acquiring new war-fighting skills. Army planners are now writing a new counterinsurgency doctrine that embraces a wholly different battlefield to that experienced in the jungles of South Vietnam. Lieutenant-General Leahy,...

TRENT Ollis has grown tired of what he perceives as a failure by average Australians to understand what their troops are doing in Afghanistan. Mr Ollis, 27, who spent seven months as an infantry soldier in Afghanistan, was awarded the Commendation for Gallantry in the military awards section of the Queen's Birthday honours list. The award was granted for "gallantry in action in hazardous circumstances" when the then Private Ollis was lead scout of a platoon attacked by Taliban forces at Musazai, in Afghanistan, on August 8 last year. During a patrol, his platoon, part of the Security Task Group...

NASIRIYAH, Iraq (AFP) — The 550-strong Australian contingent in Iraq withdrew from its bases in the south of the country on Sunday as most of the troops prepared to head home, Iraqi and Australian officials said. The soldiers left following a flag-lowering ceremony at the Imam Ali airbase west of the city of Nasiriyah, the capital of Dhi Qar province, governor Aziz Kadoum Alwan said. "The Australian soldiers left today from Dhi Qar and Muthanna provinces," Alwan said. In Sydney the Australian Defence Force said in a statement that the "Overwatch Battle Group and the Australian army training team formally...

- Australia, a staunch U.S. ally and one of the first countries to commit troops to the Iraq war five years ago, ended combat operations there Sunday, a Defense Department official said. ADVERTISEMENT Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was swept into office in November largely on the promise that he would bring home the country's 550 combat troops by the middle of 2008. Rudd has said the Iraq deployment has made Australia more of a target for terrorism.

AUSTRALIAN troops have begun arriving home from Iraq, signalling an end to the nation's combat mission in the war-torn country and fulfilling an election promise made by Kevin Rudd. The first of about 500 soldiers from the Overwatch Battle Group (West) 4 and Australia's Army Training Team reportedly touched down in Brisbane late this afternoon. The soldiers had been stationed at Tallil air base, 300km south of Baghdad, and were responsible for providing security training for Iraqi forces, as well as reconstruction and aid work. A British military spokesman in the southern city of Basra has confirmed the withdrawal was...

An email from an Australian father, “I am an Australian and my son is serving in the Australian army in Iraq. As far as we are concerned there is no place on God’s earth better than Australia and there are no people better than Australians, that was until the past week or so. “My son and I just ended a long phone conversation and here are some of his comments: ”Before I came over to Iraq I thought the Australian army were pretty hot stuff -- was I ever wrong! “The Yanks (I hope you don’t mind me using that...

Britain has been in charge of four provinces in southern Iraq since Saddam Hussein's downfall. While the divisional command will continue to operate under British leadership at Basra airbase, the orders of the US units will be to "get out front" and resume patrols and combat missions. US hopes of making the whole of Iraq secure before its eventual withdrawal have been raised by what commanders see as a potential southern version of the Sahwa, or tribal awakening, which turned locals against al-Qa'eda. Troops have been shifted from Anbar province to the Tallil airbase, Nasiriya, to assume responsibility from 550...

MORE than 40 years since serving under the command of the US Air Force in Vietnam, members of the so-called Wallaby Squadron have finally been honoured at a ceremony in Canberra. A total of 128 USAF Air Medals were belatedly awarded to the Australian pilots and ground crew of the RAAF's 35 Squadron, in recognition of their efforts when they flew with the Americans during almost a decade of battle. They were the first RAAF operational unit sent to Vietnam in 1964, and the last to leave in 1972. Operating Caribou aircraft, the RAAF 35 Squadron, also dubbed Wallaby Airlines...

AUSTRALIAN troops have been forced to use some of their heaviest firepower to fight Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan during a series of recent skirmishes, the Department of Defence says. The soldiers have been using 81mm mortars, which can hit targets kilometres away but which have not been widely used by Australia since the Vietnam war. No Australian soldiers were killed or injured in the fighting and it was not clear if any Taliban had been hit. The Taliban have launched multiple simultaneous attacks during the past fortnight. The raids have been aimed at a security post that soldiers from the...

MELBOURNE: Australia has announced pulling out its military troops from Iraq while reassuring its commitments to continue aid and help for the reconstruction work both in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to Skynews TV channel , Australian Foreign Affairs Stephen Smith informed this to US secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, US Secretary Robert Gates and Vice-President Dick Cheney on his first official visit to Washington since Kevin Rudd Government's election last year. Australia has pledged to withdraw 550 combat troops from Iraq by June this year. Smith's agenda comprised explanations on Australia's decision to withdraw its combat troops from Iraq, which...

AUSTRALIA will contribute a further $110 million to rebuilding Afghanistan and is in the country for the long haul, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has said. Mr Rudd made an unannounced visit to the strife-torn country, visiting Australian troops serving in the southern province of Oruzgan before flying into Kabul for meetings with President Hamid Karzai and NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) commander, US General Dan McNeill. Mr Rudd announced more funding for rebuilding the country - taking the total to about $270 million - and urged NATO countries to pledge more troops for the battle against a resurgent Taliban....

CANBERRA, Nov 30 (Reuters) - About 550 Australian combat troops in Iraq should be withdrawn by about the middle of next year, Prime Minister-elect Kevin Rudd said on Friday, setting a broad timetable for the soldiers to return home. Australia has about 1,500 troops in and around Iraq, but Rudd won power at the Australia's national election on Nov. 24 with a promise to bring frontline forces home. "The combat force in Iraq we would have home by around the middle of next year," Rudd told Australian radio. Rudd promised a gradual withdrawal of the troops, but had been coy...

AN Australian army officer serving in Iraq says Diggers are disappointed with the media coverage of their positive work in the troubled nation. Major James Kerr said he and the rest of the 550 Australian soldiers in Overwatch Battlegroup West III had completed 34 projects since May, including rebuilding schools and orphanages, and training Iraqi police on how to handle militias. The group, based at the Tallil air base, had also provided irrigation systems and pedestrian bridges to help the Iraqi people. "The boys get disappointed with what they see in the media. There's no focus on what we're achieving...

AN AUSTRALIAN soldier has been seriously wounded by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan, the Department of Defence says. Sergeant Michael Lyddiard was serving with the reconstruction task force when the bomb was discovered. "He was in the process of attempting to render the device safe when it detonated,'' defence chief Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston said in a statement today. "No other soldiers were wounded in the incident." Sergeant Lyddiard was provided with emergency first aid before being evacuated to a field hospital at the Australian base at Tarin Kowt in Afghanistan's south-central Oruzgan province. "Medical staff describe his current...

TWO Australian helicopter crews braved fearsome Taliban fire to rescue dozens of commandos trapped behind enemy lines in Afghanistan. The Chinook chopper pilots and airmen flew through "a hailstorm" of Taliban bullets and rocket-propelled grenades to get to their comrades, but are yet to be recognised for their courage. Ignoring calls to abort their mission, two army helicopters braved the enemy fire to extract dozens of coalition special forces soldiers from a major battle. Details of the high-risk, "kill-or-capture" mission in early July last year have been kept secret by the Australian Defence Force until now. Information about the operation...

The Department of Defence is releasing this statement on behalf of the family of Trooper David Pearce, the Australian soldier who was killed in Afghanistan on Monday, 8 October 2007. The family has requested their privacy be respected and they will not be conducting any media interviews. “David Pearce spent 18 wonderful years with his wife and had two beautiful daughters aged 11 and 6 years, who were the love and centre of his life. “David joined the Army relatively late in life. “After three years with the Army Reserve, including a tour of Solomon Islands, he joined the Regular...

The family of a soldier killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan have said he was a popular and respected soldier who loved Army life. Trooper David Pearce, 41, was killed during a roadside bomb attack on the light armoured vehicle he was driving, six kilometres from the Australian base at Tarin Kowt in the southern province of Oruzgan. One other Australian soldier and three children were wounded in the attack. "With his life experience, outgoing personality and ability to relate to people of all ages, he was a popular and respected member of his unit," the statement said. Trooper...

THE Digger killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan yesterday was 41-year-old Brisbane father-of-two David Pearce. The former Army Reservist who joined the regular army in 2006 leaves behind his wife of 18 years and two daughters aged 11 and six. In a statement released by the Defence department, Trooper Pearce's family has said his wife and daughters were "centre of his life". "He was a patriotic Australian and loved his work with the army, particularly the comradeship he developed with his mates," his family said. Defence chief Angus Houston said today Trooper Pearce's body would be returned home under...

FACING a long stint away from his wife and daughters after being posted to Afghanistan, David Pearce turned to technology to keep his family together. Trooper Pearce, 41, the Australian soldier killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan on Monday, and his wife of 18 years, Nicole, had been prolific users of the popular internet networking site Facebook. The couple's daughters, Stephanie, 11, and Hannah, 6, dominate their attentions. And last month, under one family photo, Nicole, 38, wrote under a family photograph: "We as a family are so proud of our Davey Baby." In the photograph, Trooper Pearce is...

AN Australian soldier was killed yesterday and another wounded after a roadside bomb attack in Afghanistan. It was the first Australian combat death in Afghanistan since Special Air Service sergeant Andrew Russell was killed when his vehicle hit a landmine in February 2002. The dead man and his wounded comrade were evacuated to the main Australian base at Tarin Kowt, in southern Oruzgan province. The soldiers are believed to have been serving with the 380-strong reconstruction taskforce and were on patrol near Tarin Kowt when the attack occurred early yesterday. Australian Defence Force spokesman Andrew Nikolic confirmed it was an...

AN Australian soldier may have been killed in action after a roadside bomb hit an Australian vehicle in Afghanistan. The bomb exploded on the side of a road as armoured vehicles of Australian security contingent guarding the Reconstruction Task Force based at Tarin Kowt in Oruzgan Province passed by. ABC radio has reported a number of Australian soldiers have been injured in the blast. The soldier would be the first Australian to die from direct enemy action in the military commitment in either Afghanistan or Iraq. Troops from the Townsville based 1st Combat Engineers, the Melbourne based Prince of Wales...

Breaking story from a source that must be excerpted. So short, I can't realistically excerpt so will summarise. Australian troops involved in a bomb incident in Afghanistan, no news yet on any casualties.

AUSTRALIAN special forces in Afghanistan have struck at Taliban insurgents in their heartland in a series of secretive, brutal engagements waged across some of the most hostile terrain the commandos and Special Air Service troopers have ever fought in. The fight for south-central Oruzgan province was a pivotal battle and one with crucial security implications, the commander of Australia's special forces, Major General Mike Hindmarsh, said yesterday. In a rare interview, Major General Hindmarsh said SAS operations had thrown the Taliban "off balance", helping prevent insurgent attacks on the key provincial centres of Tarin Kowt and Kandahar. "The Taliban, they're...

Prime Minister John Howard has promised to stand by the United States in terms of Australia's presence in Iraq on the eve of an American reassessment of the recent military surge in the troubled nation. US President George W Bush will return home early next week from the APEC summit in Sydney to hear a report from General David Petraeus, the US commander in Baghdad. Mr Howard said Australia should stand by its ally in difficult times. "It's very difficult times for the US," Mr Howard told reporters in Sydney. "One of the things that influenced my thinking is the...

DARWIN, Australia (AFP) — Australian opposition leader Kevin Rudd said Saturday that he would bring the nation's troops home from Iraq by the middle of next year if elected to government. The Labor party leader said he would deliver that message to US President George W. Bush when the two meet next week, as Bush visits Australia for a meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. "It's time for there to be an exit strategy for Australian combat troops," Rudd told reporters in Darwin. Rudd has a strong lead over Prime Minister John Howard in opinion polls, with an...

MASSIVE increases in defence salaries and allowances have helped staunch a recruitment crisis, making Australian servicemen and women among the world's best paid. Generous government-backed pay adjustments have now put $80,000 defence force salary packages within the grasp of jobseekers who are barely in their 20s... a booming economy and the lure of bigger salaries in the private sector... the Government was forced to commit $3.1billion over 10 years to improve recruitment, including significantly boosting pay levels. Between November 2001 and this month, ADF salaries jumped 23.7per cent across the board and will rise over the 10 years by 36.73per...

FORT HUACHUCA — If England and America are two countries separated by a common language as George Bernard Shaw once said, the same is true of Australia and America. Just ask Australian Army Capt. Tony Sewell. One day while relaxing with some American friends, the 28-year-old officer mentioned he was going to put on his thongs. The comment elicited some raised eyebrows and pointed comments about why Sewell would want to put on the skimpy item meant for the most private of parts. Of course, what the captain meant to impart “to the mates,” he was going to wear flip-flops,...

Australian soldiers have shot and killed the driver of a vehicle in Afghanistan after it allegedly sped towards them. The incident occurred in Tarin Kowt yesterday about 1.15pm. The Australian Defence Force said the driver was directed to stop but instead sped towards the soldiers. The soldiers used verbal and visual signals "consistent with their rules of engagement" in an attempt to get the driver to stop. But when the driver failed to do so, the soldiers opened fire, killing the driver, the ADF said in a statement released this afternoon. "There is currently a significant threat of vehicle borne...

PRIME Minister John Howard said today the Federal Government had no plan to start withdrawing Australian troops from Iraq by February or within any other specific time frame. The Sunday Telegraph today quoted an anonymous senior military source as saying that such a plan was in place in the event the war in Iraq worsens for US-led forces. The rumoured plan would reportedly be announced before the federal election later this year to ambush Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd, who has committed to pulling out Australian troops from Iraq if Labor wins government. Mr Howard gave a stern reply to reporters...

<p>It was a stand-off on the high seas like that which led to the arrest of 15 British sailors and marines by the Iranians earlier this year.</p> <p>But this time the potential captives were Australians and they were a little less meek in their response.</p>

The Australian sailors re-boarded the vessel they has just searched and held off the Iranians until they were choppered off. The Defence Department has confirmed a report Iranian naval forces in the Persian Gulf tried to capture an Australian navy boarding team but were repelled in the face of machine guns and "highly colourful language". According to the BBC, the incident took place months before Iranian Revolutionary Guards seized 15 British sailors and marines in March., setting off a tense two-week diplomatic stand-off that might have been avoided if Britain had learned from the Australian encounter. The Britons were...

AN Australian navy boarding crew in the Gulf of Persia repelled an Iranian gunboat that threatened them a matter of weeks before 15 British sailors were captured in a similar incident, a BBC reporter says. The capture of the British crew in March developed into a major diplomatic incident before their release was negotiated. But BBC reporter Frank Gardner, a security specialist, reported the Australians managed to avoid a similar incident - pointing their guns at the Iranians and used "colourful language" before a gunboat withdrew. "What I've been told by several sources, military sources, (is that) there was a...

AUSTRALIAN troops are set to resume the battle against Taliban insurgents asviolent clashes with Afghan and coalition troops intensify in Oruzgan province. Dutch forces, who lead the provincial reconstruction team based at Tarin Kowt, have fought their hardest battles since their deployment to the southeastern province last year. Over the past five days, more than 100 people have died in the fighting in Oruzgan after insurgents attacked Afghan police posts in the rugged Chora valley, 15km north of Tarin Kowt, the provincial capital. The dead included police, civilians and Taliban fighters, Afghan officials said. The Dutch have lost two soldiers...

<p>Australia will boost its military force in Iraq by an extra 38 personnel and 4 Bushmaster troop carrying vehicles, Defense Minister Brendan Nelson said Monday.</p> <p>Nelson announced the extra troops in Canberra after returning from visiting Australian troops in Iraq and Afghanistan from Aug. 28 to Sept. 2.</p>

AUSTRALIA'S military taskforce in southern Iraq will be reinforced with an extra 38 soldiers and four Bushmaster armoured transport vehicles as troops undertake more hazardous, longer-range patrols in al-Muthanna province. The reinforcements bring the number of Australian troops serving in southern Iraq to more than 500, including 30 soldiers who are training the Iraqi army. Defence Minister Brendan Nelson said yesterday Australian troops would remain in Iraq for the long haul. In Baghdad last week, Dr Nelson met Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and pledged Australia's continued support for the Government. "He said to me, 'You were there with us...

The formation of Overwatch Battlegroup – West has opened a new chapter in the Australian army’s long and distinguished history of military operations in the Middle East. Formerly known as Al Muthanna Task Group 3, the 450-strong Australian unit is tasked with providing operational supervision in support of Provincial Iraqi Control in Al Muthanna province, southern Iraq. Al Muthanna on July 13 became the first province in Iraq to achieve PIC. It gives Iraqi security forces the lead role in maintaining a secure environment for their people. Following Iraqi control, Multi-National Forces in the province began handing over their bases,...

AUSTRALIA is likely to send more troops to Afghanistan to protect engineers about to be deployed to that country, Defence Minister Brendan Nelson says. Dr Nelson said the Special Operations Task Group already in Afghanistan, which includes elite Special Air Service soldiers, will come home as planned at the end of September. But the minister said worsening security in southern Afghanistan may require extra protection for the reconstruction taskforce Australia was about to send to the country. "The threat level and the risks in Afghanistan have been increasing substantially over the last few months," Dr Nelson said on Channel 9....

AUSTRALIAN soldiers were involved in the shooting of a personal guard of the Iraqi trade minister in Baghdad, the Australian Defence Force said. Iraqi Trade Minister Abdel Falah al-Sudani lashed out after Australian soldiers shot dead one of his guards and wounded others as an Australian trade delegation left his offices overnight. The Vice Chief of the Australian Defence Force, Lieutenant General Ken Gillespie, today confirmed members of Defence's security detachment had been involved in the shooting. "The security detachment was conducting routine security duties when this incident occurred," a statement from defence said. Lt Gen Gillespie has expressed deep...

AUSTRALIA should follow the lead of Japan and withdraw its troops from Iraq, Opposition Leader Kim Beazley said today. Japan today announced plans to withdraw its troops from southern Iraq by the end of July. As a result of the Japanese withdrawal, Australia is redeploying its 460 soldiers in the Al Muthanna province who have been guarding Japanese military engineers and training Iraqi troops. Defence Minister Brendan Nelson has warned that Australia's next mission, based near the city of Nasiriyah, could involve a much greater risk of attacks by insurgents. Mr Beazley said the Government should have pulled the Australian...

Australia troops will still have a role in Iraq after foreign forces hand over security to Iraqi forces in the country's south, Prime Minister John Howard said Sunday, indicating his country's troops would not be brought home soon. Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Salam Zikam Ali al-Zubaie said on Friday that Iraq has an agreement to take over security responsibilities from Japanese, Australian and British troops in southern Iraq this month. About 460 Australian troops are providing security for the Japanese contingent of 600 in Iraq's southern Muthanna province. In total, Australia has about 1,320 troops in Iraq and the Middle...