Fed: Aust troops set to target Taliban leadership

AAP General News (Australia)
04-13-2007
Fed: Aust troops set to target Taliban leadership

By Max Blenkin, Defence Correspondent

CANBERRA, April 13 AAP - Australian special forces will have Taliban leaders firmly
in their sights when they return to Afghanistan in coming months.

Targeting the Taliban's field commanders was a strategy developed the last time an
Australian special forces task group fought in Afghanistan for a year from September 2005.

The Australians quickly realised the Taliban was able to absorb substantial casualties
among its foot soldiers, losing dozens and even hundreds at a time, mostly to coalition
air attacks.

But taking out leaders had a marked impact on the willingness of the lower ranks to
keep on fighting.

Defence Minister Brendan Nelson said today similar tactics would apply when a 300-member
special forces group returns to Afghanistan's Oruzgan province in the next few months.

It will be made up of members of the Perth-based Special Air Service Regiment (SASR),
Army 4RAR Commando battalion and Incident Response Regiment, both based at Holsworthy,
outside Sydney.

The force will have 100 more troops than last time and will stay at least two years,
suggesting intense and protracted operations.

"They will do as they did before in terms of getting out into the sanctuaries, the
passes, the valleys and the more remote parts of Oruzgan to keep the Taliban off-balance
and to conduct where it is appropriate offensive operations against Taliban leadership,"

Dr Nelson told ABC Radio today.

He said it was vital to engage not only the hearts and minds of Afghans through the
activities of the 370-member engineering task group, but also to take the fight to the
Taliban.

"We are not interested in engaging the poor sons of farmers and those who are refugees
that have been paid to basically fight with the Taliban," he said.

"Our people will very effectively target the Taliban leadership."

Australia currently has some 500 troops based at Tarin Khowt in Oruzgan, comprising
the engineering group and their security detail.

In the wake of today's announcement, troop numbers will reach about 950 by the middle
of this year and peak at 1,000 in mid-2008.

Also to be deployed will be an RAAF air surveillance radar unit with about 75 personnel
to control air traffic around Kandahar Airfield. It will be in place around mid-year.

Two Chinook helicopters, 110 aircrew and support personnel who operated from Kandahar
from March last year returned home this week, but will redeploy again early next year.

Currently the RAAF flies two C-130 Hercules transport aircraft from a base in the Persian
Gulf. A third is to be dispatched to support Afghanistan operations.

The expanded Afghanistan force will be backed by extra logistics and intelligence personnel.

The government has admitted that the Australian public must be aware that this will
be a dangerous mission.

"There is the distinct possibility of casualties and that should be understood and
prepared for by the Australian public," Prime Minister John Howard said today.

Despite intense fighting during the first Afghanistan deployment in 2001-02 and even
more intense fighting on the second tour, Australia has lost just one soldier.

SASR Sergeant Andrew Russell died when his vehicle hit a landmine in southern Afghanistan
on February 16, 2002.

The Australian troops are heading for a part of the world that has become immensely
more complicated.

Emboldened by the success of insurgents in Iraq, the Taliban has enthusiastically adapted
its tactics, including use of suicide bombers, roadside bombs - one of which killed six
Canadian soldiers this week - and attacks on soft targets including aid workers.

A political solution may eventually be possible with the government of President Hamid
Karzai considering dealing with acceptable elements of the old regime.

However, that would presents special problems. The Taliban overwhelmingly recruit from
the majority Pashtun tribes, while the country was liberated back in 2001 by elements
mostly drawn from Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara minorities which now play key roles in the Kabul
government.

This raises the unwelcome prospect of old north-south rivalries reigniting.

From one perspective, the Taliban and al-Qaeda, their former house guests in Afghanistan,
are now virtually indistinguishable, so any move to draw more pragmatic elements into
a political settlement could be extremely useful in dividing the insurgency.

Then there's Pakistan. Indisputably insurgents hang out in the tribal areas of the
country's north-west, travelling across porous borders almost at will.

That's also where Osama Bin Laden and his entourage are believed to be hiding.

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has walked a very fine line in balancing the demands
of his own fundamentalist constituency and those of the US and others, including Australia,
to do more to curtail militant activities.

It's likely to be a tough season.

"Taliban activity in Afghanistan will intensify this spring, with a heavy emphasis
on suicide attacks against Afghan and NATO forces," the US private sector intelligence
group Stratfor has predicted.

"A coordinated campaign by Taliban and al-Qaeda militants also appears to be underway,
in which motorcades carrying high-value military or intelligence officials are singled
out.

"NATO and Afghan forces will mount a strong counter-offensive, making this quarter
a particularly bloody one."

AAP mb/sb/it/nf

KEYWORD: AFGHAN AUST (AAP BACKGROUNDER) RPT

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