Insurgent cells disrupted by targeted operations in Uruzgan

Three-weeks of part­nered oper­a­tions against the lead­er­ship of insur­gent cells with­in Uruz­gan has effec­tive­ly dis­man­tled a region­al-lev­el cell and sig­nif­i­cant­ly dis­rupt­ed two dis­trict-lev­el groups who were active­ly plan­ning or con­duct­ing activ­i­ties with­in the province.

The intel­li­gence-led oper­a­tions have sig­nif­i­cant­ly impact­ed on the insurgency’s spring-time prepa­ra­tions and recon­firmed the effec­tive­ness of the Spe­cial Oper­a­tions Task Group’s (SOTG) part­ner­ing with the Provin­cial Response Com­pa­ny- Uruz­gan (PRC‑U).

Com­man­der of the Aus­tralian Forces in the Mid­dle East Major Gen­er­al Angus Camp­bell said the effec­tive­ness of the insur­gent lead­er­ship in cen­tral and west­ern Uruz­gan was seri­ous­ly under­mined by the operations. 

“Part­nered Spe­cial Forces oper­a­tions in March have result­ed in 10 key insur­gent com­man­ders no longer pos­ing a threat to local nation­als and Coali­tion forces in Uruz­gan province,” Major Gen­er­al Camp­bell said. 

“The insur­gency is now more vul­ner­a­ble than it has been in recent years and after a win­ter peri­od where many of its caches were dis­cov­ered and destroyed, they will find it more dif­fi­cult to con­struct home-made bombs and attack civil­ian and coali­tion tar­gets.”
The string of suc­cess­es in Oper­a­tion TEVARA SIN 24 start­ed on 18 March when part­nered PRC‑U and SOTG patrols suc­cess­ful­ly inter­dict­ed two insur­gent com­man­ders oper­at­ing in the west­ern areas of Uruz­gan province. 

One of these men, Mul­lah Abdul Ali, was shot and killed along with his body­guard when they dis­played clear­ly hos­tile intent against the approach­ing PRC‑U and SOTG patrol. 

Mul­lah Abdul Ali was an insur­gent com­man­der respon­si­ble for impro­vised explo­sive device (IED) and sui­cide bomb attacks in west­ern Uruzgan. 

The sec­ond dis­trict-lev­el insur­gent com­man­der was detained on 19 March and is alleged to have been heav­i­ly involved in the man­u­fac­ture, dis­tri­b­u­tion and employ­ment of IEDs in west­ern Uruzgan. 

Con­cur­rent oper­a­tions on 27 March result­ed in the deten­tion of an alleged dis­trict-lev­el com­man­der in the Mirabad val­ley region, and sep­a­rate­ly a per­son believed to be a pro­lif­ic IED facil­i­ta­tor in the Deh Raf­shan area.
The per­son detained in Mirabad is believed to have direct links to the high­est lev­els of the insur­gency in the province. 

“He is sus­pect­ed of being a sub­or­di­nate of one of the senior com­man­ders in Uruz­gan and respon­si­ble for mul­ti­ple attacks on Afghan Nation­al Police check­points and facil­i­tat­ing IEDs through­out east­ern Uruz­gan,” Major Gen­er­al Camp­bell said. 

The part­nered force also killed the senior logis­ti­cian respon­si­ble for sup­port­ing sev­er­al insur­gent cells oper­at­ing in the cen­tral Uruz­gan region in a relat­ed oper­a­tion the fol­low­ing day.
On 28 March, mem­bers of the PRC‑U and SOTG killed two armed insur­gents in Deh Raf­shan after they engaged the patrol with small arms fire. 

It was lat­er con­firmed that one of those killed in the March 28 engage­ment was Ahma­di Kaka, an accom­plished IED man­u­fac­tur­er and facil­i­ta­tor who played a key role in sup­port­ing insur­gent oper­a­tions in cen­tral Uruzgan. 

He was instru­men­tal in the pro­vi­sion of weapons and mon­ey and was active­ly involved in the recruit­ment of insurgents. 

“His death is con­sid­ered a seri­ous blow to the insur­gent groups cur­rent­ly con­sol­i­dat­ing after the win­ter peri­od, and high­lights the effec­tive­ness of our part­nered PRC‑U and SOTG oper­a­tions against the insur­gent lead­er­ship,” Major Gen­er­al Camp­bell said. 

On March 30, a sus­pect­ed insur­gent was detained in an oper­a­tion in the Khod Val­ley. He has been iden­ti­fied as a dis­trict-lev­el insur­gent com­man­der and IED facilitator. 

Over the week­end the part­nered force con­tin­ued its suc­cess­ful oper­a­tion, killing region­al-lev­el com­man­der Muham­mad Wali dur­ing an engage­ment in the Mirabad Val­ley region on 3 April. 

The suc­cess­ful inter­dic­tion of Wali came only a day after two dis­trict-lev­el com­man­ders, Nas­rul­lah and Muham­mad Shah Mamood were killed dur­ing a sep­a­rate, but relat­ed, oper­a­tion in the Deh Rawud region. 

Dur­ing Oper­a­tion TEVARA SIN 24, an insur­gent 82mm mor­tar and asso­ci­at­ed ammu­ni­tion, per­son­nel weapons and sev­er­al items used in the man­u­fac­ture of IEDs and the coor­di­na­tion of insur­gent attacks were also captured. 

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

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

Face­book and/or on Twit­ter

Team GlobDef

Seit 2001 ist GlobalDefence.net im Internet unterwegs, um mit eigenen Analysen, interessanten Kooperationen und umfassenden Informationen für einen spannenden Überblick der Weltlage zu sorgen. GlobalDefence.net war dabei die erste deutschsprachige Internetseite, die mit dem Schwerpunkt Sicherheitspolitik außerhalb von Hochschulen oder Instituten aufgetreten ist.

Alle Beiträge ansehen von Team GlobDef →