New Zealand
New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark announced in April 2008 that there would be additional New Zealand troops sent to the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Banyan Province, because of concern over the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan. A member of the NZSAS in Afghanistan, Corporal Bill Apiata, was awarded the Victoria Cross for New Zealand in 2007 for bravery under fire in 2004. Three other SAS soldiers also received bravery awards for actions during the same mission; two received the New Zealand Gallantry Decoration and one the New Zealand Gallantry Medal. There are also two C-130 Hercules and one Boeing 757 transport aircraft and an unstated number (about 120) of New Zealand Special Air Service special forces soldiers and 2 ANZAC class frigates in the Persian Gulf.
In November 2007, a nephew of New Zealand's Minister of Defence Phil Goff died in Afghanistan; he was United States Army Captain Matthew Ferrara, who held both American and New Zealand citizenship. In July 2008, the sixth Australian soldier died in Afghanistan, New Zealand-born SAS Signaller Sean McCarthy.
The decision was made in August 2009 that NZSAS troops would be sent back to Afghanistan.
Exit strategy: The Government of New Zealand is working on an exit plan to pull all New Zealand troops out of Afghanistan.
Read more about this topic: Participants In Operation Enduring Freedom
Famous quotes containing the word zealand:
“Teasing is universal. Anthropologists have found the same fundamental patterns of teasing among New Zealand aborigine children and inner-city kids on the playgrounds of Philadelphia.”
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