German Patience Running Out

The arrest of the presumed senior Taliban official, with the help of the KSK troops, and his subsequent transport to Kabul were carefully staged. The mission was designed as a show of strength and to send a clear message to Afghan authorities and insurgents alike: We are no longer willing to be taken advantage of. Anyone who attacks us must expect to be pursued.

For months, a group of senior German government officials have been searching for a response to the growing number of attacks on German soldiers in Afghanistan. Part of that response entails developing a more efficient security strategy for the wider area around Kunduz, which the Germans are supposed to be controlling militarily and where at least 600 German soldiers are stationed.

Jung and Chancellor Angela Merkel, who paid a visit to German troops in Afghanistan in April, are tired of constantly having to explain to soldiers why the authorities know who is attacking them, but can do little about it.

Thirty-two German soldiers have died in Afghanistan since 2002. There have been about 30 attacks on German troops since the beginning of this year alone. On the day the KSK flew Razeq to Kabul, Minister Jung attended a memorial service for a 21-year-old soldier from the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemberg. The private first class was mortally wounded on April 29 when his patrol became embroiled in a fierce gun battle.

Jung's claim that the Germans "are not involved in a war there, but in a stabilization mission" is currently being refuted day after day. The insurgents, a band comprising the Taliban, Pashtun clans and criminals, have drawn Germany's armed forces, the Bundeswehr, into a gruelling conflict in which soldiers are shooting, killing and dying. A conflict in which the Germany army was to build bridges, plant trees and provide security has turned into a war that is also putting the Berlin government's political approach in jeopardy. Merkel has consistently praised Germany's policy of restraint as a model, partly as a counterargument to the Americans' demands for a stronger German military commitment.

The tally of an ordinary week in early May documents how serious the situation is today. In the space of six days, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was involved in 138 skirmishes and exchanges of fire, and insurgents committed 41 attacks with explosives and 57 with mortar and rocket fire. The war has now spread to once-peaceful northern Afghanistan where the Taliban now have de facto control over entire areas.

Although no engagements took place on Friday and Saturday despite a massive German presence, a German infantry platoon got into a new ambush yesterday. Having been stopped by an improvised explosive device (IED), the patrol had to dismount and blaze a path out. Two German soldiers were shot - one suffered a gunshot wound to the stomach, probably from a large calibre weapon of the enemy. And again were attackers killed: District chief Abdul Wahid Omarkhel told daily Die Welt that at least one Taliban would have been killed. Since the beginning of offensive operations in Chahar Darreh in April, at least 26 Taliban have been killed in gunfights and dozens more were wounded. Also more than fifty insurgents were arrested and handed over to Afghan authorities. The local security forces (Kandaks of ANA's 209th Corps and the Kunduz Police) as well as the Bundeswehr (Light Infantry Battalion 292, Mechanized Infantry Battalion 391) suffered three fatalities and thirteen casualties in the same time.

Source: XXXttp://noergelecke.blogsome.com/2009/06/08/wo-krieg-und-frieden-aufeinandertreffen/

 

"For reasons of security, German ambulances in Afghanistan will no longer be marked with the Red Cross. In the last few months, these vehicles had been deliberately targeted by the Taliban, a DoD spokesperson said."

 

 

 

[XXX]ttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_combat_operations_in_Afghanistan_in_early_2009