Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

Good afternoon everyone, and welcome again to our regular update on operations in the Middle East.

We've all seen the dramatic images from Baghdad this morning, and as encouraging as they are, I think it is important to remember there is still a lot of work to be done. Our sailors, soldiers and airmen and women are still carrying out operations in the waters of the Gulf, and on the land and over the skies of Iraq. The job's not done yet, and we must not lose sight of that fact.

While events are obviously moving extremely fast in the broader sense of coalition operations, for our part, our activities have remained steady and without incident over night. And I am pleased to report that all our people are safe and accounted for.

Our maritime forces continue their various operations in the waters of the northern Persian Gulf.

HMAS DARWIN is conducting patrols in the northern gulf waters while HMAS ANZAC is operating as a control and guardship in the K-A-A waterway that leads to the port of Umm Qsar. HMAS KANIMBLA continues with its current replenishment operations.

The port of Umm Qsar is now well and truly open, allowing important aid ships to bring their supplies into Iraq. Our navy divers are now moving forward to the Khawr Al Zubayr waterway to the north, where they will assist British Royal marines with mine counter measure operations to clear the waterways north from the port.

Our special forces remain in Iraq, and continue to dominate their assigned area of operations. These operations will continue unchanged in the immediate future.

And now to air operations . . .

Reflecting the changing nature of operations in Iraq, we had most of our FA-18 Hornets again in the air flying close air support missions in support of coalition ground troops, but only one of those aircraft was required to engage an enemy target and drop its bombs.

The remainder of our Hornets returned to base still carrying their ordnance. This is obviously a good sign as it demonstrates the diminishing capability and effectiveness of remaining enemy forces in the southern region and around Bagdad.

Our other aircrew also continue their operations around the clock.

The Orion maritime patrol aircraft continue flying their long and detailed surveillance missions in support of Coalition shipping in the northern Persian Gulf, while our C-130s continue with the huge rate of effort they continue to provide in moving critical stores and equipment throughout the Middle East Area of Operations.

Well, that concludes today's brief, and I'd now be happy to take any of your questions . . .

QUESTION: Mark Forbes from The Age, Brigadier. You mentioned that there's still a bit of concern in the north. Are there any plans for any Australian ground forces to be swung into that region and, if not, how soon before we look at bringing some of them home? Surely there can't be much call on groups like the Commandos - you say they're not there for peacekeeping roles - so would we be looking at bringing them back or, instead, are they looking at going up north?

BRIGADIER HANNAN: Well at this stage it's a bit early to determine what operations they might have to undertake for the remainder of this combat phase. Clearly the focus at the moment is on Baghdad but, as we've pointed out, in other areas of the country there's very little or no Coalition presence, and there's possibly quite a bit of work remaining to be done.

I don't have any clear view of what might be involved in that at the moment, but I can tell you that for the time being our Special Forces will remain in their AO and keep that particular area under close control.

QUESTION: Jo Ball, from Channel Seven. Now that the war appears to be, you know, finishing up, what role do you see HMAS Sydney having? Will it go back to looking for contraband and that type of thing or what role will it have?

BRIGADIER HANNAN: Well that's not clear at the moment but in terms of those waterways in the north there will still be a need to control shipping in and out, and of course to maintain security in terms of terrorists and other threats.

So they will certainly have a role there in assisting with that. The idea is to get these ports open and to get the commercial traffic moving as quickly as possible and as effectively as possible. And there'll be a need to maintain certain controls over the movement of that shipping in the early days. One would assume that that would be an important task to be conducted by ships like that.

QUESTION: Samantha Armitage, SKY News. Brigadier, just wondering, the Chief of the Defence Force addressed the National Security Committee this morning. Are you able to tell us any more details on what he said during that briefing, and any more details on what he may have told the Government, particularly in a post-war scenario?

BRIGADIER HANNAN: Well I think the decisions made by the National Security Committee will be announced by the Prime Minister or Government in due course. Clearly they're discussing, you know, what the role of Australia should be and what commitment we should have in the future.

QUESTION: Don Woolford, from AAP, Brigadier. General Cosgrove, in an interview published today in the Army newspaper said that the war would be over when Iraq could no longer manufacture or use weapons of mass destruction and, quote, 'we will stick at this until it is resolved,' unquote.

Now, I was wondering if you could explain, please, just, in practice what this is likely to mean, and it also rather suggests that at least some of our forces will be staying to resolve this for some time after what appears to be the major combat is over.

BRIGADIER HANNAN: Well, firstly let me say how delighted I am to hear that you read our Army newspaper, the fine publication that it is. In terms of the weapons of mass destruction there are clearly two things that are required: firstly, there's the capability to manufacture - and many countries have the capability of course to do this - and secondly there is the intent.

In terms of the intent, that's linked directly to the regime and to its intention to manufacture and use these types of weapons. So I think you could reasonably say that once those issues are resolved -that is we have a handle on the physical capability and that should be no problem now, we certainly won't have restrictions for inspectors in the future - the intent matter should be relatively resolved as well, with the fall of the regime.

Now, as to what part we would play in that in the future, that's very much a matter for Government and a matter that Government would decide. We would want to play our part as part of the whole Coalition, and the specialist skills that we bring to that would be the ones where we're able to make the best contribution.

QUESTION: [indistinct] from Radio Free Asia, Brigadier. With the wrapping up of war in Iraq, I just want to check out if there is any attempt on the part of the Coalition Forces and also on the part of the Australian Armed Forces, is there any attempt to pursue and capture the senior leaders of the Saddam regime and bring them to the International Court? And, if so, what attempt has been taken?

BRIGADIER HANNAN: Well the answer is yes, that is the intention. In terms of the details of the precise attempts I don't have those readily to hand and they're perhaps not things that we'd be discussing publicly, in terms of current operations or intentions. But as the Minister for Defence has stated as recently as this morning, people who have committed war crimes will be brought to book.

QUESTION: Brigadier, Mark Phillips, from News Limited. Several days ago you referred to an Australian officer on exchange who was with the First Expeditionary Force into Baghdad. I'm just wondering if you've got any more information on what involvement he's had in the last couple of days, particularly the unit he's attached to?

BRIGADIER HANNAN: I don't, Mark, but it's a good question and I'll undertake to find some information for you over the next 24 hours.

QUESTION: Mark Forbes again, Brigadier. You mentioned that one FA-18 did drop bombs on a target. What target was it, and what was the impact or the effect of the bombing?

BRIGADIER HANNAN: I'm not aware of the detail of the target, it was a military target to the north-west of the city, and in support of the ground forces manoeuvring that area, and I don't have any information as to its success.

QUESTION: And what measures is the ADF taking to deal with the fruit cake crisis that's now bedevilling our deployment up there?

BRIGADIER HANNAN: [laughs]. Well, firstly, let me applaud the initiative of the mother who cut the cake into two 1kg packages. I think that that shows the best spirit of ANZAC in getting the fruit cake through. There is actually, coincidentally, a review on the allowance and that's recently been conducted. I gather the allowance will, in the near future, be increased and also standardised across the various operations we have in various parts of the world. And we'll make some arrangement to make sure people know how to use it effectively.

OFFICIAL: We'll take one more question.

QUESTION: You mentioned the north earlier. Is it your understanding - and I know this goes beyond the ADF - that the question of taking, particularly Kirkuk and Mosul - has that become now primarily a military question or a political question?

BRIGADIER HANNAN: In what sense? In the sense that there are negotiations going on for surrenders and such?

QUESTION: In the sense that a lot of the troops outside these cities are Kurdish, and we all know the sensitivities with Turkey over that.

BRIGADIER HANNAN: Yes. Well I think the important point for the Coalition clearly is to secure the northern oilfields and make sure that we don't have a, you know, an act of almost vandalism against the Iraqi people in damaging those. And that will be a matter of some priority to do that.

In terms of how the forces in the north are dealt with, I don't know the plans but, you know, I can only hope that there's the right kinds of negotiations are going on to end that as quickly and with as little bloodshed as possible.

OFFICIAL: That concludes this afternoon's Media Brief. Thanks for attending.
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