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SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - Australia will send another 200 troops to help with reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan, nearly doubling the country's military presence in the war-ravaged country, Prime Minister John Howard said Tuesday.
Howard said the troops would be deployed in late July for two years and will come under the command of a Dutch-led provincial reconstruction team.
Australia originally sent 150 special forces troops to Afghanistan as part of the U.S.-led war that ousted the Taliban and al-Qaida forces in late 2001, but then gradually reduced its troop commitment to just one soldier.
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