Capture of former Taliban commander another success

[UsaPride]

Capture of former Taliban commander another success

URUZGAN PROVINCE, Afghanistan - The call comes just as the Special Forces soldiers return from their raid.


Photo by Steve Hebert
Abdul Wadud, the man from the desert, is handcuffed and blindfolded after being detained by Special Forces soldiers during a raid in the Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan. Wadud is a former Taliban brigade commander.
Release the man you captured.

Weeks of working sources, days of planning and waiting, hours of driving across roadless Afghanistan - that's what went into the raid. A raid that turned up nothing, anyway, until a suspicious-looking man walked in from the desert.

The soldiers snatched him up, and he turned out to be Abdul Wadud. The captain commanding the Fort Bragg-based Special Forces team talked to the provincial governor, Jan Mohammad Khan, who said Wadud was definitely a Taliban leader.

His capture made the work of the raid worthwhile.

But now the Green Berets are being told to let him go.

The captain is incensed at the politics.

The word the team gets is that Afghan President Hamid Karzai's brother has called the American ambassador in Kabul to complain about Wadud's capture. The embassy called Lt. Gen. David Barno, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, who called the Special Forces task force.

Meanwhile, back at the team's firebase, the Afghan admits that he is a former Taliban brigade commander. The soldiers say he tells them that he scouts compounds for Taliban commanders to use as safe houses.


Fort Bragg Special Forces soldiers provide security while Hazara commandos search a compound in Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan, for Taliban fighters and weapons. The team found several bags of opium, a machine gun, a rocket launcher and an AK-47 rifle.
Excited, the captain relays the information to the Special Forces headquarters in Kandahar. The intelligence is good enough to earn the team something of a reprieve. They don't have to let Wadud go; instead, they are to put him on the next chopper to the headquarters.

It is a small victory, but enough for the team. It isn't the first time that politics had a role in dictating policy in fighting the war on terror.

At one point, the 10-member team was almost confined to the firebase after killing a group of Taliban guerrillas in a firefight. The captain says he was told that he and his team were "cowboys" pushing too close to the edge of the rules for operations. What got them off the hook was an intelligence report that said the remaining Taliban had left the area because they were tired of being harassed.

Success validates tactics, and the captain believes the Special Forces tactics in Afghanistan are working. The Green Berets are just more flexible than conventional forces in a place like Afghanistan.

The infantry is built to take on an identified enemy on a battlefield. A Special Forces team is trained to ferret out a secret enemy and neutralize it.

For the team that captured Wadud, the strategy for doing that is simple: Make it hard for the guerrillas to launch their attacks.

According to a special operations staff officer in Afghanistan, there are three pieces to the continued Afghan resistance - the underground supply network, the guerrillas and the auxiliary to the fighters.

The Special Forces soldiers are targeting the auxiliary. They are the leaders, the link between the supply system and the fighters. When someone like Wadud is captured, a link is broken.



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Three days after Wadud's capture, the faint thud of helicopters bounces around the mountains. The echoes make it tough to tell which direction the Chinooks are coming from until the big choppers appear over a ridge.

Waiting for the weekly supply flight are 25th Infantry Division and Special Forces soldiers. The soldiers are in Humvees and Toyota pickups. Some ride four-wheelers equipped with machine guns.

Previous
A-team doesn't return to base empty-handed (Dec. 28)
Soldiers wait to go back on the hunt (Dec. 27)
Special Forces soldiers track remnants of Taliban, al-Qaida (Dec. 26)


The helicopters, dual propellers whirling, set down on a gravel landing pad outside camp. They stir up a huge dust cloud, and the soldiers wait until it dissipates before moving to the Chinooks.

The air crews quickly push supplies off the back of the cargo helicopters into the arms of the soldiers. The flights provide the camp with everything from vehicle parts and fuel to mail and food. The helicopters are the only regular link between the firebase and Kandahar.

Once the supplies are off, Wadud is escorted onto the helicopter. He is blindfolded, and his hands are bound.


No one on the team knows what happens to him once he gets to Kandahar. As far as the team members know, he just disappears.

And really, most of the men don't care. They have done their job, captured their man. Now it is time to plan the next mission.

More info at http://fortbraggnc.com/story.php?Template=local&Story=6764385

 

[CSM]

The politics in Afghanistan (and probably Iraq) are a serious detriment in the war on terror. The US needs to quit trying to fight the PC war. When this prisoner gets to HQ, there is no doubt in my mind they will release him. The Special Forces team would have done well to just kill the bastard.

 

[NATO AIR]

The politics in Afghanistan (and probably Iraq) are a serious detriment in the war on terror. The US needs to quit trying to fight the PC war. When this prisoner gets to HQ, there is no doubt in my mind they will release him. The Special Forces team would have done well to just kill the bastard.

killed while trying to escape would be the best story i think, you're 100% right about the local politics messing up the mission for the US

 

[5stringJeff]

Only problem with killing them is that any intel you might get from them is gone.

 

[NATO AIR]

Only problem with killing them is that any intel you might get from them is gone.

perhaps then holding them for a while w/o the local gov't knowing about it?