Ben Roberts-Smith joins 600 veterans as Albanese marks Australia’s 25 years in Afghanistan

The Prime Minister marked 25 years since Australia joined the US and other coalition forces in Afghanistan. He honoured those who served, the 47 Australian personnel who died as a result of their service and their families.

Australia deployed more than 35,000 servicemen and women to the Middle East over two decades until their withdrawal in 2021. Some 263 were wounded.

Former soldier Mathew Bell, who was deployed in 2012, remembers his unit's work with a sense of honour and accomplishment, saying they "changed that little part of Afghanistan... for good". He recalled that girls were able to attend school and medical services were rolled out to villages.

Brief written by urgent.news from The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, Discovered — 3 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.