Asia-Pacific News
Australian soldier wins Victoria Cross
Jan 23, 2011, 4:06 GMT
Sydney - An Australian soldier received the military's highest award for bravery, the Victoria Cross, Sunday for attacking three Taliban machine gun posts in Afghanistan.
Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith of the elite Special Air Service was praised at a ceremony in Perth for saving his vastly outnumbered patrol when they were ambushed in northern Kandahar in 2010.
Four Australian soldiers were wounded and pinned down when Roberts-Smith charged enemy positions.
Only 97 Australians have been awarded the Victoria Cross since it began in 1854, two of them in Afghanistan.
More than 1,550 Australian troops are based in Afghanistan, mainly in Oruzgan province.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard told parliament that Australia troops will remain in Afghanistan beyond 2014, and could be engaged in the continuing training of Afghan troops.
Twenty one Australian soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since 2001.
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