Afghanistan — Gunfire to Governance at Gizab

The Tal­iban has been oust­ed from a north­ern Oruz­gan town and local gov­ern­ment has been restored thanks to a com­mu­ni­ty upris­ing sup­port­ed by Aus­tralian Spe­cial Forces sol­diers and their Afghan part­ner force, the Provin­cial Police Reserve (PPR).

A mem­ber of the Spe­cial Oper­a­tions Task Group takes a sight pic­ture of ene­my posi­tions from the rel­a­tive safe­ty of a com­pound in north­ern Giz­ab Bildquelle: Aus­tralian Min­istry of Defence

SOTG rein­force­ments land at Giz­ab in US heli­copters to ensure a com­mu­ni­ty led vic­to­ry over Tal­iban insur­gents that had been attempt­ing to gain con­trol of the town through vio­lence and intim­i­da­tion of locals. Bildquelle: Aus­tralian Min­istry of Defence

In the north­ern Oruz­gan town of Giz­ab, ten mem­bers of the Tal­iban were con­firmed to have been killed in a series of fire­fights com­menc­ing on 21 April which saw the SOTG, the PPR, and locals take on the insur­gents who were intim­i­dat­ing the pop­u­la­tion through vio­lence. No mem­bers of the SOTG, PPR or locals were hurt in the bat­tle, pro­vid­ing a sign of hope for the peo­ple of Giz­ab. With com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers and Gov­ern­ment offi­cials from Oruz­gan tak­ing the lead and the Aus­tralian and Afghan forces pro­vid­ing secu­ri­ty and guid­ance over the ensu­ing days, a large meet­ing was held in the cen­tre of the town to nom­i­nate a new Giz­ab Dis­trict Gov­er­nor, a new Chief of Police and their deputies. The groundswell of pop­u­lar sup­port from the towns­peo­ple cul­mi­nat­ed in an impromp­tu cer­e­mo­ny in the mid­dle of the town to raise the Flag of Afghanistan. Dur­ing this, Aus­tralian per­son­nel man­aged to con­duct an Anzac Day dawn ser­vice at Gizab. 

Source:
Aus­tralian Min­istry of Defence