Injured Digger being flown to Germany

(AAP) An Australian soldier critically wounded in a Taliban ambush in Afghanistan is being transferred to Germany for treatment.

The special forces soldier was among nine diggers hurt in a firefight on Tuesday
night when insurgents hit a coalition convoy with gunfire and rocket-propelled
grenades.
He was being moved from Tarin Kowt in southern Afghanistan to US medical facilities
in Germany for specialist care, the Australian Defence Force said on Thursday.
"We ... remain deeply concerned for the soldier who will be transferred to Germany,"
ADF spokesman Brigadier Brian Dawson said.
The conditions of two other soldiers wounded in the ambush has improved, leaving
three who are in a serious condition and five in good or fair condition.
All eight are being treated at the coalition forces' base in Tarin Kowt.
Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston said the critically hurt soldier was taken to
Kandahar for surgery on Wednesday night, ahead of being flown to Germany.
"Our prayers and thoughts are with him and his family, he's in the best of medical
hands," Air Chief Marshal Houston told reporters.
"That means he's got the best chance of survival, but we rate him as very seriously
ill which means that there is still a way to go."
The biggest Australian casualty count since the Vietnam war occurred when the
soldiers were returning from a raid on Taliban forces.
An unknown number of insurgents died in the battle.
Air Chief Marshal Houston would not go into operational specifics, but said he was
"very happy with the work that the Special Operations Task Force group are doing".
"They've been spectacularly successful at keeping the Taliban in the province of
Oruzgan on the back foot and very successful at targeting their leadership and also
targeting the people that put those hideous improvised explosive devices together,"
he said.
Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon said Australia remained committed to the war.
"The events of Tuesday night remind us that Afghanistan remains a dangerous place
and that the challenges for the global community there remain enormous," he told
parliament.
"We must continue to meet those challenges ... and we will."
Mr Fitzgibbon also criticised defence officials for failing to debunk in good time
Taliban prisoners' claims of being detained in a dog enclosure by Australian
soldiers.
The minister earlier this week was forced to defend troops against accusations of
degrading their Muslim prisoners in April.
It later emerged the pens used to detain the four prisoners were never used to keep
dogs, Mr Fitzgibbon said.
"I did express my disappointment that it took so long to find out that indeed the
idea the pens had been used for dogs wasn't true," he said.
"I have made it pretty clear that I expect that information to be more timely and
more accurate."