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 

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