Special Forces Continue to Remove Insurgent Commander Threat

Afghan Nation­al Secu­ri­ty Forces (ANSF) and the Spe­cial Oper­a­tions Task Group (SOTG) detained an insur­gent com­man­der dur­ing a cor­don and search mis­sion in Uruz­gan Province on 3 Jan­u­ary 2012.

Com­mand­ing Offi­cer of SOTG Lieu­tenant Colonel J, whose full name can­not be revealed for secu­ri­ty rea­sons, said a high lev­el insur­gent com­man­der was detained with sev­er­al oth­er per­sons of interest. 

Lieu­tenant Colonel J said the mis­sion was to tar­get insur­gent lead­er­ship oper­a­tions and to specif­i­cal­ly detain the insur­gent com­man­der for his involve­ment with Impro­vised Explo­sive Devices (IEDs) and attacks on Afghan civilians. 

“The insur­gent com­man­der is sus­pect­ed of lead­ing a net­work of 30–50 insur­gents who were respon­si­ble for man­u­fac­tur­ing and emplac­ing IEDs and sup­ply­ing IED parts to insur­gents in the Tarin Kot bowl,” he said. 

“It is alleged the insur­gent net­work was respon­si­ble for a num­ber of kid­nap­pings and beat­ings of local nation­als.” Lieu­tenant Colonel J said ANSF and SOTG would con­tin­ue to detain insur­gents who have any involve­ment in man­u­fac­tur­ing, emplac­ing or sup­ply­ing IEDs and their components. 

“IEDs not only kill and wound Coali­tion Forces, more dis­turbing­ly they kill and wound inno­cent Afghan civil­ians. If insur­gents are involved with IEDs it is only a mat­ter of time until we find them,” he said. 

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

The Afghan Nation­al Secu­ri­ty and Spe­cial Oper­a­tions Task Forces con­tin­ue to improve the secu­ri­ty sit­u­a­tion in Uruz­gan Province, focus­ing on dis­rupt­ing insur­gent networks. 

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

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