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13 July 2005

Australian SAS head to Afghanistan

The Australian government announced today that a special forces task group comprising 150 soldiers will deploy to Afghanistan following requests from the Afghan government, the United States and the United Kingdom. The task group is expected to comprise members of the Special Air Service Regiment (SAS).

The task group is expected to spend upwards of one year in Afghanistan working with allied forces in combating locally-based terrorist forces.

This comes less than a week after the Australian government announced AUS$207 million will be spent to improve the base housing the country's special forces command.

In May, Canada began the process of relocating its Afghan contingent from Kabul to Kandahar and switching roles to providing reconstruction of local civilian infrastructure.