Fed: Hill to visit Iraq

AAP General News (Australia)
04-20-2005
Fed: Hill to visit Iraq

Defence Minister ROBERT HILL will visit Australian troops at their new deployment in
southern Iraq.

Senator HILL says he'll also be spending time building relationships with the political
leaders of the province.

He says only a small number of Australian troops are now in place in Al-Muthanna province.

The rest of the 450-member task force will arrive over the next couple of weeks --
via HMAS Tobruk and British military and commercial aircraft.

The Australian task force will be based outside the Al-Muthanna province capital Samawah
with the key job of protecting Japanese military engineers working on reconstruction projects.

For security reasons, no details of when Senator HILL will leave for Iraq have been released.

AAP RTV mb/low/wf1

KEYWORD: IRAQ AUST HILL (CANBERRA)

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