March 01, 2005 - THE nation's 120-member security detachment in Baghdad – SECDET – are evacuating their former base next to the unoccupied Australian embassy and moving into the more secure Green Zone.

Army Chief Lieutenant General Peter Leahy confirmed today the move was underway.

"The SECDET have already commenced movement and they will be closer to the diplomats and I think that movement is pretty well happening now," he said today.

It follows the evacuation of Australia's three diplomats who in late January relocated to the Australian headquarters on the American Camp Victory base.


The move was prompted by a car bombing near the embassy building on January 20.

Australian is building a permanent embassy inside the Green Zone and it was planned that the diplomats would move there once construction work was complete.

However, for security reasons, it was decided SECDET would remain at its base next door to the former embassy chancery in a residential suburb on Baghdad's Karradah Peninsular.

Their base has been an uncompleted but fortified apartment building known as the flats.

The decision to leave the troops raised eyebrows at Senate estimates hearings last month when Labor members queried why more than 100 soldiers were staying on to guard the unoccupied embassy building.

General Leahy said he could not comment on what would happen to the flats. Nor could he say what security arrangements would apply to the former embassy building, first occupied by Australian diplomats during Saddam Hussein's regime.

"I can't help with the disposal of the flats but our security force, the SECDET, is there to protect the diplomats and they will be close to the diplomats," he said.

"They are going into a secure zone. It will be very close to where the diplomats are ... same zone."

Asked if they entire SECDET detachment would be moving, he replied: "That is my understanding, yes."

The move follows a weekend shooting incident in which Australian troops in Baghdad opened fire on a vehicle which failed to respond to their orders to stop.

General Leahy said both people involved in the shooting were receiving medical treatment and were well.

"There is an investigation going on and properly we should wait for the results of that investigation," he said.

General Leahy said investigation of other incidents involving the shooting of Iraqis by Australian troops had in every case found the actions of the Australians were correct.