Australian Deputy Prime minister criticises Americans

MILITANTS fighting the US-led coalition in Iraq are “morally and mentally deranged butchers,” Australia’s deputy prime minister said yesterday – hours after an attack on a base housing the country’s soldiers.

Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson, responding to the mortar attack on the base near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Saturday, said the strike demonstrates the need for Australian forces to remain in the country to defeat the insurgents.

Australia's opposition party has threatened to pull the country's troops out of Iraq if it wins elections later this year.

Australia has 850 military personnel in and around Iraq.

"It's a situation we can't walk away from," Anderson told Australia's Nine Network television.

"I think you've got to say you can't give in ... to these sorts of butchers morally and mentally deranged butchers."

Up to eight mortar rounds were fired at the Iraqi Army Training Facility base.