Five Australian soldiers killed in Afghanistan

Patrick Lion, National Political Reporter
Daily Telegraph
August 30, 20126:11PM



FIVE Australian soldiers have been killed in two separate incidents in Afghanistan, in one of the darkest days of Australia's campaign.

In the first incident, three soldiers were killed in an attack in Oruzgan province by a man wearing an Afghan National Army uniform.

Two other soldiers were also wounded in the incident, Acting Chief of Defence Air Marshal Mark Binskin told a media conference in Canberra. 

In the second incident, two Australian Special Forces soldiers were killed when their helicopter crashed in Helmand province.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has cut short her trip to the Pacific Islands Forum and will fly back to Canberra tonight. 

She said Australians would be grieving for the five dead soldiers in what was the worst day of deaths in combat since the Vietnam War.

"I believe this is the most losses in combat since the days of the Vietnam war and the battle on Long Tan,'' she told reporters.


"This is news so truly shocking that it's going to feel for many Australians like a physical blow.

"If we are feeling that, then it is hard to imagine what the families of these five men are feeling," she said.

"Their loss is immense, their grief will be sharp and our condolences go to each of them as they are confronted by this news."

The three soldiers killed in the first incident were all based at the Gallipoli barracks in Brisbane's Enoggera.

One was a 40-year-old lance corporal posted to the 2nd/14th Light Horse Regiment of the Queensland Mounted Infantry.

He was on his second tour of Afghanistan and had previously served in Iraq.