Afghanistan — Insurgent commander killed attempting to shoot Australian troops

On 29 April 2011, Aus­tralian Spe­cial Forces killed a promi­nent Uruz­gan insur­gent dur­ing an Afghan Nation­al Police-led oper­a­tion in Tarin Kot in Uruz­gan province.
Hay­at Ustad, a known insur­gent leader, drew a pis­tol and attempt­ed to shoot mem­bers of the Aus­tralian Spe­cial Forces. Act­ing in self defence, the Aus­tralian Spe­cial Forces then shot and killed the insur­gent.

Com­mand­ing Offi­cer of the Spe­cial Oper­a­tions Task Force Lieu­tenant Colonel G (who can­not be named for secu­ri­ty rea­sons) said Ustad was a key insur­gent leader in Uruzgan. 

“He was a high­ly influ­en­tial insur­gent and key logis­ti­cian with links to oth­er senior insur­gent lead­ers in south­ern Afghanistan,” Lieu­tenant Colonel G said. 

“Ustad was respon­si­ble for arms smug­gling, trans­port­ing weapons and fight­ers, and impro­vised explo­sive device con­struc­tion. He was also heav­i­ly involved in the coor­di­na­tion, direc­tion and plan­ning of sui­cide-bomb attacks.” 

The death of Ustad marks the lat­est suc­cess­ful oper­a­tion in which a key insur­gent leader has been killed or cap­tured by Provin­cial Response Company–Uruzgan offi­cers and their SOTG part­ners since their con­cert­ed offen­sive cam­paign began last month. 

The oper­a­tion was con­duct­ed with strict adher­ence to Aus­tralian rules of engage­ment, and, as a result, there were no civil­ian casu­al­ties or col­lat­er­al damage. 

Provin­cial Response Com­pa­ny — Uruz­gan (PRC‑U) and Spe­cial Oper­a­tions Task Group (SOTG) con­tin­ue to attack the com­mand and con­trol net­works of insur­gent groups prepar­ing for oper­a­tions as the weath­er improves in Uruzgan. 

Tar­get­ed oper­a­tions are focused on insur­gent net­works known to be oper­at­ing in Uruz­gan province and along key access routes into the region. Oper­a­tions are specif­i­cal­ly designed to dis­rupt insur­gent spring-time fight­ing preparations. 

This recent series of suc­cess­es was specif­i­cal­ly designed to unhinge insur­gent spring-time fight­ing prepa­ra­tions and has direct­ly impact­ed on two dis­trict-lev­el cells and a larg­er region­al-lev­el insur­gent group. 

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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Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs) 

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