Posted on 01/11/2009 9:00:07 PM PST by traumer
Australian special forces have killed a senior Taleban leader in southern Afghanistan, the Australian Defence Ministry has said.
Mullah Abdul Rasheed was described as a senior Taleban commander responsible for bringing in fighters and potential suicide bombers into Uruzgan province.
He was described as being responsible for the deaths of civilians and members of the coalition.
More than 1,000 Australian troops are based in Afghanistan.
"Rasheed was a senior commander in the Baluchi Valley and was believed to be responsible for Taleban operations in the area resulting in the deaths of Coalition Force members and Afghan civilians in recent months," an Australian Defence Ministry statement said.
"He had been identified as a primary IED facilitator, responsible for coordinating IED emplacement in Uruzgan province," the statement said.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
http://www.theage.com.au/world/death-of-taliban-insurgent-a-win-for-forces-20090112-7ep0.html
Death of Taliban insurgent ‘a win’ for forces
Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon says the death of Taliban insurgent commander Mullah Abdul Rasheed is a significant win for coalition forces in Afghanistan.
Rashhed was killed during a recent operation in Oruzgan Province.
Mr Fitzgibbon’s told Sky News he was a very senior insurgent commander that had been well-known to coalition forces for a long long time and his removal from the chain of command is a significant win.
Rasheed is also believed to have been the organiser of the rocket attack that killed Private Gregory Sher last weekend.
Defence head Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, on a visit to troops in Afghanistan, said the special forces troops had just finished a successful operation that resulted in the death of a number of Taliban insurgents and the capture of two.
Unfortunately it also resulted in the death of Private Sher, the eighth Australian soldier to die in Afghanistan. As a member of the part-time 1 Commando Regiment, he was also the first reservist to die in Afghanistan.
In an impassioned speech on the weekend, Air Chief Marshal Houston told special forces soldiers gathered in the dining area at their base in Tarin Kowt: “It is quite clear you made them pay for the death of a comrade.”
He praised them for continuing the operation in a completely professional manner, showing great distinction, courage and teamwork, despite this tragedy.
“The results they achieved were nothing short of spectacular,” he said later.
Air Chief Marshal Houston said it had been confirmed late Friday that one of those killed in the operation was a prominent and long-hunted Taliban leader from the Baluchi region.
“They actually got the leader who we think orchestrated all of this,” he said.
“They went into an area this guy was the leader. They got him.”
Australian special forces have killed or captured more than a dozen Taliban leaders in the province in the past six months.
Air Chief Marshal Houston said the Australian special forces team were having a significant impact on the province.
“Last year the violent incidents went up right acoss Afghanistan. The only province where there was a reduction in violent incidents was in Oruzgan. We were against the trend,” he said.
Commander of Australian forces in the Middle East Major General Mike Hindmarsh said the special operations task group had been operating in Oruzgan since 2005, disrupting Taliban operations by targeting the leaders and bomb makers.
He said most of the top leaders had now fled to Pakistan.
“They know it is just too dangerous to operate in that part of the world,” he said.
“Our aim is to keep whacking them and disabuse them of the notion that they can exist there at all.”
Go Diggers!
Those Aussies, especially spec forces guys, are some bad hombres. They fought in Nam and were lucky to have heavier caliber FAL FN (.308) and the VC and NVA avoided them. They prefer to fight the scum McNamara’s M-16 .223 Mattel rifle. The M-16 has improved but the early versions were garbage.
Thank you, to the Australian Special Forces.
Why is the good news only reported across the pond.
Ozzy Ozzy Ozzy!
Oi! Oi! Oi!
I am suprised the insanely PC & Islamo-loving BBC did not attack the Aussie troops.
You do not want to mess with those Aussies especially the spec forces guys. Tough tough birds.
Don’t you just love happy endings?
Three Cheers for the Diggers...
Three Cheers for the Diggers...
And Viva Viagra!
It’s nice that they killed this dude, but I’m sick of seeing headlines that scream TOP LEADER or CHIEF killed, from any group...if it’s not Bin Laden it’s just some lackey, even if the only good lackey is a dead lackey.
Or he is already “room temperature” as Rush would put it. Still, it would be great if they got him before Bush leaves office...
GO AUZIES!!!
*Try and think of Bin Laden is so inconsequential, he is no longer in charge of Al Queda and no longer worth going after.*
Read what I wrote again.
Then, tell the part of the world who still admires and follows Bin Laden that he is of no consequence and it doesn’t matter if the Americans ever capture or kill him. Ho hum, la dee da.
The fact of the matter remains that whenever we or the Israelis blast some lower echelon of terrorist, it’s not a “top leader” or a “Chief”. The words TOP or CHIEF mean something, and it’s not “Junior Assistant Undersecretary in Charge of Assisting the Bombmaker”.
Jeez.
I meant in an operational sense.
But even if we kill him, to these people, he will become an martyr, which can be more difficult to “de-myth”
It's a lose-lose situation.
You seem to be having difficulty comprehending the nature of my complaint.
Let me compare it to mathematics:
If a newspaper says “GM LOSES 10 BILLION DOLLARS IN Q1”, but GM actually lost 9 Billion, well, that’s not factually correct, is it?
O.K, I reread your original post and understand.
Have a good one;-)
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