Australians Take Riskier Role in Iraq

Australian troops in Iraq could soon face battles against insurgents with a risk of casualties, the country's prime minister, John Howard, said today in an announcement detailing their new mission.

The new, more dangerous role for Australia's forces in southern Iraq forms part of a wider redeployment of foreign troops as security responsibilities are gradually handed over to Iraqi units.

This process began this week with the announcement in Tokyo that Japanese troops stationed in the southern province of Muthana will end their humanitarian mission and withdraw, while Australian and British soldiers will hand over to their Iraqi counterparts.

There was fresh violence today despite the talk of handover, with the US military reporting the deaths of four marines and a soldier in attacks south of Baghdad.

The marines died on Tuesday, three after their vehicle hit a roadside bomb and a fourth in a separate attack. The soldier was killed by a bomb.

Also today, the militant group that claimed responsibility for killing two abducted US soldiers this week said it had killed four kidnapped Russian embassy workers.

The Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella grouping dominated by al-Qaida in Iraq, said in a statement on an Islamist website that the four had been killed, declaring: "God's law was implemented against the Russian diplomats."

The group had given Moscow a 48-hour deadline to pull its troops out of Chechnya and release Islamist radicals.

Addressing parliament in Canberra today, Mr Howard said the 460 Australian troops in Muthana, who have been guarding Japanese engineers in the provincial capital, Samawah, will move to an air base in Tallil, about 50 miles to the south-east. They will train and hold exercises with Iraqi forces, as well as undertaking reconstruction work.

Mr Howard said that although the new posting was still safer than most of the rest of Iraq, it was more dangerous than where the Australians had been so far.

"Should situations develop that are beyond the capacity of the Iraqi security forces to resolve, the Iraqi government may call upon the coalition to provide them with backup," said the Australian leader, a staunch supporter of the US-led invasion despite widespread domestic opposition. "This could involve providing support in areas such as communication, command and control, intelligence and surveillance and in extreme cases through direct military action."

Earlier this week, Mr Howard's defence minister, Brendan Nelson, hinted at the coming withdrawal of Australian troops, saying that if the south remained calm after Iraqi forces took over, Canberra would review its deployment by the end of this year.

But today, Mr Howard warned against calls for an early withdrawal.

"Australia will not be hostage to a particular timetable for withdrawal from Iraq," he said. "We will only leave when the job has been finished.

"There may have been strong views either way on the original decision to go to Iraq but there should be complete agreement on all sides now that this is not the time to leave the Iraqi people to their own devices, in other words not to cut and run."