Afghanistan attack to cause questions, but Australia committed

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Wednesday said another attack on Australian soldiers serving in Afghanistan will cause many to question the mission, but the country is committed to the war until the scheduled withdrawal in 2014. Three Australian soldiers have been wounded in Afghanistan when an Afghan National Army (ANA) soldier opened fire to his colleagues. The incident came just 10 days after three Australian soldiers died and seven wounded in a similar attack in Afghanistan. Also in May, an Afghan soldier shot dead his Australian mentor as they carried out guard duty. Gillard said she was very conscious the attack, coming so soon after the previous "dreadful killings", might cause Australians to question the mission in Afghanistan and trust in ANA soldiers. Although the attack "corroded" trust, Gillard insisted progress was being made in Afghanistan. She said training Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers and local police is "pivotal" so they can eventually provide security and Australian troops can come home. "(But) as distressing as these incidents are, as dreadful as these incidents are, our mission in Afghanistan does need to continue," she told reporters in Melbourne. Defense Minister Stephen Smith agreed, saying that the latest attack, which would be "exhaustively investigated", represented a very serious setback. He noted that there had been 15 such incidents over the past 12 months involving international forces in Afghanistan. "(But) despite these events we continue to very strongly believe we're on track to transition to Afghan responsibility for security matters by 2014," he said. Defense force chief David Hurley said security has now been beefed up at the small Basir base where the attack occurred overnight. Australia will now raise vetting procedures with the International Security Assistance Force "to make sure everything is done to vet those people that go into the Afghan national security forces".