Australia — Two district level insurgent commanders killed by Special Forces

Afghan Nation­al Police and their Aus­tralian Spe­cial Forces part­ners have killed four insur­gents, includ­ing two dis­trict lev­el com­man­ders, dur­ing an oper­a­tion in Uruz­gan on 24 June 2011.

The insur­gent com­man­ders, Mul­lah Ghu­lam and Mul­lah Ghar­four, were killed by mem­bers of the Provin­cial Response Com­pa­ny — Uruz­gan (PRC‑U) and the Spe­cial Oper­a­tions Task Group (SOTG) dur­ing an exchange of fire in the Shahid‑e Hasas district. 

The Com­mand­ing Offi­cer of the SOTG (who can­not be named for oper­a­tional secu­ri­ty rea­sons) said the removal of these insur­gent com­man­ders will have an imme­di­ate and sig­nif­i­cant effect on the abil­i­ty for insur­gents to oper­ate in north­ern and west­ern Uruzgan. 

“Mul­lah Ghu­lam was deputy to the Khod Val­ley dis­trict com­man­der and a senior Impro­vised Explo­sive Device (IED) facil­i­ta­tor,” the Com­mand­ing Offi­cer of the SOTG said. 

The oth­er senior insur­gent com­man­der, Mul­lah Ghar­four, was also an expert in the con­struc­tion and emplace­ment of IEDs, and trained numer­ous insur­gents in south­ern Afghanistan. 

Both of these men had direct links to the senior region­al insur­gent leadership. 

“The removal from the bat­tle­field of these insur­gent lead­ers will be a sub­stan­tial blow to insur­gent com­mand and con­trol and will reduce their abil­i­ty to wage attacks against Afghan and ISAF forces in this area,” the Com­mand­ing Offi­cer of the SOTG said. 

One insur­gent fight­er was also detained in the operation. 

No Afghan or Aus­tralian troops were wound­ed or killed dur­ing the mission. 

Media con­tact: Defence Media Oper­a­tions: (02) 6127 1999 or 0408 498 664 

Press release
Min­is­te­r­i­al Sup­port and Pub­lic Affairs,
Depart­ment of Defence,
Can­ber­ra, Australia 

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