Leader captured in Uruzgan
Special Forces Capture Two More Key Taliban Targets
Media Release – SOTG   URUZGAN, Afghanistan (March 30, 2011) -The Afghan police and their Australian Special Operations Task Group (SOTG) partners have captured two prominent Taliban targets in a single day.   Concurrent operations on 27 March 2011 between members of the SOTG and the Provincial Response Company-Uruzgan (PRC-U) resulted in a high value target captured in Mirabad, and another in Deh Rafshan.   The commander of Austrailan Forces in the Middle East, Major General Angus Campbell, said capturing two objectives is keeping the pressure on the insurgency and restricting their operations.  “Special Forces operations in March alone have resulted in four key targets no longer posing a threat to local nationals and Coalition forces in Uruzgan province."  The insurgent leader detained in Mirabad had direct links to the highest levels of the insurgency in the province.   “He was a subordinate of one of the senior commanders in Uruzgan and was responsible for multiple attacks on Afghan National Police checkpoint, and facilitating Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) throughout eastern Uruzgan,” Major General Campbell said.   The insurgent leader detained in Deh Rafshan is the son of a senior Taliban commander and producer of home-made explosives (HME).   “This man facilitated and emplaced IEDs from the Baluchi Valley to Tarin Kot.”  High value detainees are prosecuted under Afghan law before being transferred to the Detention Facility in Parwan (DFIP). Their names can not be released unless they are prosecuted.   On 28 March 2011, the PRC-U and SOTG also killed two additional insurgents in Deh Rafshan when they were engaged by small arms fire. There were no civilians injured or killed in the contact.