AN Australian soldier serving with the Special Forces Task Group in southern Afghanistan has been wounded in action.
An Australian special forces trooper has been wounded in action in Afghanistan.

The trooper, who has returned to Australia for treatment, was shot in a skirmish with Afghan militia, defence officials said today.

He is the fourth Australian soldier to be wounded in Afghanistan since troops were sent there to fight in the war on terror in 2001.

Details of the incident, the soldier's identity and the nature of his injury have not been released.

Chief of the Defence Force, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, said the soldier was initially treated by his comrades and evacuated to a medical facility for surgery, before being flown out.Air Chief Marshal Houston said the soldier was able to speak to his family shortly after surgery.

An Afghan National Army soldier operating with the Australian patrol also was wounded.

Defence Minister Brendan Nelson, who declined to comment on the incident, last month warned of rising violence in Afghanistan.

“We in Australia of course are aware that Afghanistan is a risky place. The risk is going to increase over the next six months to a year,” he said.

Australia Defence Association director Neil James said it was yet another reminder of the dangers being faced by Australian troops in overseas deployments.

Mr James said it was unfortunate the Government was not more open about the Afghanistan mission.

“Perhaps if the government was more forthcoming about the ADF's operations in Afghanistan public support for the ADF's operations overseas would be even greater,” Mr James said.

“Public confidence in the defence force needs to be sustained by regular and informative briefings as to what the defence force is doing on behalf of the people of Australia and it's not occurring at the moment.”

Australia currently has a special forces task group comprising 300 Special Air Service Regiment, Commando and support troops in Oruzgan province, an area of significant insurgent activity in central Afghanistan.

A 200-strong Australian provincial reconstruction team will go to the same area later this year, working with around 1,400 Dutch troops.

Insurgent activity has risen over the past year with a four-fold increase in suicide attacks, a doubling of use of home-made bombs, and greater concentration on soft targets, according to defence analysts.

The Afghan insurgency remained a complex mix of Taliban remnants, some Pashtun tribesmen, alongside al-Qaeda and other foreign fighters.

Australia's first casualty in Afghanistan was an SAS trooper who had two toes blown off by a landmine in a mission north of Kandahar, in the country's south, in January 2002.

SAS Sergeant Andrew Russell, 33, was fatally wounded when his patrol vehicle struck a mine in southern Afghanistan in February 2002.

In September 2005, an SAS trooper, operating from a base south-east of Kabul, was wounded in a vicious firefight with up to 50 insurgents near the Pakistan border.

And several weeks later another trooper received a minor shrapnel wound while on patrol.
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