Australia to send 150 troops to Afghanistan

CANBERRA - Australia will send 150 special forces and support troops back to Afghanistan to help its close ally the United States hunt down a resurgent Taleban and al Qaeda, Prime Minister John Howard said on Wednesday.

Howard said requests for assistance had been received from the US and Afghanistan and that the force would be deployed by September for about 12 months.

Australia sent 1550 troops to Afghanistan in 2001 to join the US-led strikes that toppled the ruling Taleban for harbouring Islamic militant network al Qaeda, responsible for the September 11, 2001, US airliner attacks.

"The progress that has been made in the establishment of a legitimate government in Afghanistan has come under increasing attack and pressure from the Taleban in particular, and some elements of al Qaeda," Howard told a news conference.

"It's very important that all countries play a role in making sure that that resurgence is not in any way successful," he said.

Australia's original deployment to Afghanistan was withdrawn at the end of 2002.

Howard reiterated that the decision to send soldiers back to Afghanistan, where guerrilla violence is rising ahead of parliamentary elections in September, would have no bearing on Australia's military commitment in Iraq.

Australia has about 1370 defence personnel serving in and around Iraq.

Australian Special Air Service (SAS) troops were involved in some of the earliest and fiercest fighting in Afghanistan in 2001 and will again join the hunt for Taleban and al Qaeda.

"It will have a security task which is very similar to the task that was undertaken by an SAS taskforce that went in 2001. It will operate in conjunction with forces of the United States," Howard said of the latest deployment.

The United States commands an 18,300-strong international force, most of whom are American, fighting Taleban and al Qaeda militants in Afghanistan and hunting their leaders.

- REUTERS