Gillard defends Afghan war after soldier killed

SYDNEY: The war in Afghanistan is not endless or without purpose, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard said Tuesday, after another Australian soldier was killed by insurgents.

The 23-year-old, from the Special Operations Task Group, was the fourth Australian to die in the country over the past fortnight and brought to 27 the number of Australians killed in the decade-old conflict so far.

"This has been a hard time for Australia, these two weeks, one of our hardest in Afghanistan," Gillard told reporters in the central Australian desert town of Alice Springs.

"Our resolve is being tested the way the resolve of our coalition partners has been tested on other occasions.

"And I can't promise that there will be no more hard days. I can't promise that. As we enter the fighting season in Afghanistan, we have to prepare ourselves for the possibility of more hard days to come.

"But I can promise you this; Afghanistan is not an endless war and it is not a war without a purpose."

Gillard said Australia was "crystal clear" on its mission to train Afghan National Army soldiers to take over security in the restive southern province of Uruzgan, part of a broader effort by US-led forces to hand over in 2014.

Australian forces were making progress in this area and were on track to achieve transition to Afghan control by 2014 as hoped, the prime minister said.

"Now this progress is difficult but it is being made," she said. "I know our resolve is being tested but it will not waver as we work to complete our mission in Afghanistan."

The latest soldier to die, whose name has been withheld at the request of his family, was killed by small-arms fire during an encounter with insurgents, defence chief Angus Houston said.

"An Australian combat engineer was shot (on Monday evening)," Air Chief Marshal Houston told reporters, adding that he died during a raid on an enemy weapons cache in Helmand province.

"Despite the rapid application of first aid and his evacuation... the soldier succumbed to his wounds."

Houston added that the "massive" cache was blown up by patrol members during the raid.

The soldier's death came as the bodies of Lieutenant Marcus Case and Lance Corporal Andrew Jones, killed in Afghanistan last week, returned home to Melbourne on Monday.

Decorated commando Sergeant Brett Wood, 32, lost his life when an improvised explosive device detonated on May 23.

Australian soldiers have been on the ground in Afghanistan on and off since late 2001 when foreign forces entered the country following the September 11 attacks on the United States.

Canberra has some 1,550 soldiers stationed in Afghanistan as part of a 130,000-strong international force and has suffered the loss of six soldiers since the beginning of 2011.

The total foreign military death toll in the country this year is 233, according to independent website iCasualties.org.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011