Australian soldiers have been sent to Iraq to beef up security at the embassy in Baghdad as Iraq teeters on the brink of sectarian war.
A spokesman for Defence Minister David Johnston on Friday confirmed that a “small Australian Defence Force “liaison element” had been sent to Baghdad to bolster security arrangements at the embassy“.
Fairfax Media reported earlier this week that elite SAS soldiers could be sent to Baghdad to evacuate diplomats if the security situation in the Iraqi capital deteriorated sharply.
Australia withdrew most of its forces in mid-2008, when then prime minister Kevin Rudd declared “mission over”. Australian troops are returning to the chaotic and dangerous country barely six months after the last of them were withdrawn from the eight-year Iraq war.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on Friday that the government’s first priority was ”ensuring that our people in Baghdad are safe and that we have the capacity to remove them if necessary, to move them safely if necessary”.