Australia is sending special forces commandos back to Afghanistan to hunt down the leaders of the resurgent Taliban as part of a doubling of Australia's troop numbers there, Prime Minister John Howard said on Tuesday.The deployment of 300 special-forces troops to the southeast of Afghanistan, near the heart of the Taliban rebellion, is part of an increased effort needed to win the war in Afghanistan, Howard told a media conference.
"We have done this against the background of a deterioration in the security environment in southern Afghanistan," Howard said.
Australia will also send air-force radar crews to Kandahar, extra logistics and intelligence officers, and extend the deployment of a team providing protection and security, Howard said, taking Australia's deployment to about 950 by the middle of this year and growing to more than 1,000 by the middle of 2008.
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