CANBERRA - An attack on Australian troops in southern Iraq was a minor incident and no one was hurt, a defence spokesman says.
The soldiers were on a routine security mission in the middle of As Samawah City, the capital of Al Muthanna province, at about 2.30pm yesterday
(local time) when they were attacked.
It is understood they were visiting the local governor and the chief of police.
A defence spokesman told AAP that the incident was "minor" and the Australians were not injured.
"The Overwatch Battle Group (West) Patrol was fired on by anti-Iraqi forces with a rocket propelled grenade and small arms fire," the spokesman told AAP today.
"The rocket propelled grenade and small arms fire missed the patrol and there was no damage to the patrol or defence force equipment."
Commander of the Australian troops in southern Iraq, Lieutenant Colonel Tony Rawlins, said the troops were in the middle of the town when they were attacked.
"As they were leaving the provincial joint operations centre, coming out through the back gate, down a side alley, they were engaged by two to three people," Lieut Col Rawlins told ABC Radio.
"(There was) one rocket-propelled grenade and a small burst of fire from an AK-47."
Lieut Col Rawlins said it was "widely inaccurate fire" and the Australian Light Armoured Vehicles (ASLAVs) were not hit.
The Australians did fire back at their attackers, he said, but their response was restrained.
"They fired around five rounds of small arms fire. They only caught them as they were fleeing the scene," he said.
"We'll now hand it over to the authorities to investigate."
The commander said he was confident local authorities would find the attackers.
"Quite often they are able to follow up on this because the sort of people who do this are your local sort-of hothead and usually after this they'll be bragging to somebody about what they did.
"So there's usually quite a good success rate for bringing these guys to justice."
- AAP
