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Australia launches two military units

By P. S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE Sept. 5. Australia today raised its anti-terror management capacity by launching two new military units. These units are the Incident Response Regiment (IRR) and a Tactical Assault Group (East).

Of the two, the IRR is based on the new security doctrine of meeting threats to civilians from all types of weapons of mass destruction, especially chemical or biological agents and radiological devices. The TAG (East) is a relatively more conventional unit designed to deal with

hostage-taking terrorist-offensives. There already exists a similar assault group on the west coast of Australia.

Launching the two units at Holsworthy Barracks in Sydney today, the Australian Defence Minister, Robert Hill, pointed out that these professional capabilities were fashioned in the light of the experiences gained during security upkeep for the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and the Commonwealth summit held after the September 11 terrorist strikes in 2001.

Portraying the IRR as a new warfare unit in the frontier areas of defence know how, Mr. Hill said the 300-personnel group would need "a great scientific basis... a strong analytical basis as well as soldiering skills". Besides playing a role at home, the IRR would, "in appropriate circumstances, work with Australian forces offshore".

All three wings of Australia's military forces have rallied behind America's anti-terror war in Afghanistan. Noting that Australia was now playing an interactive role with the Americans in the wider Afghan theatre, Mr. Hill said the question of Canberra's participation in a possible war against Saddam Hussein's Iraq at this time would depend on "an assessment of Australia's national interests".

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