Australian participation in the war in Afghanistan

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The participation of Australia in the war in Afghanistan was part of the so-called Operation Slipper . The Australian Defense Force referred to deployments of the Royal Australian Air Force and the Australian Army in Afghanistan and the Royal Australian Navy in the Persian Gulf , which are part of the United States-led Operation Enduring Freedom . From autumn 2001 to December 31, 2014 the Australian name was Operation Slipper .

commitment

As of July 1, 2014, 41 soldiers from the Australian Defense Force had died in Afghanistan.

Some military operations with Australian involvement are:

history

After the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 , the Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard , had two tankers moved to the Kyrgyz Manas Air Base . In Afghanistan itself, in the US-led Camp Rhino , a Special Forces Task Force was stationed until the withdrawal in December 2002 and again from September 2005 to September 2006.

One member of the Australian Army was deployed to UNAMA from April 2003 to June 2004 under the name Operation Palate and two soldiers from June 2005 to mid-2007 as Operation Palate II .

The Howard Cabinet decided in August 2006 to set up a Reconstruction Task Forces and to move them to Uruzgan Province , where they worked with Dutch people and soldiers from France, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and the United States. The 420 person strong task force operated under the mandate of the ISAF and consisted of engineer troops, officers, logisticians, communication specialists and combat troops, which was equipped with Bushmaster Protected Mobility Vehicle and other vehicles. The area of ​​operation included the cities and the vicinity of Tarin Kut and Chora . Larger encampments were Kamp Holland and Camp Russell. The Australian soldiers rebuilt the hospital in Tarin Kut, and other buildings, roads and bridges were repaired.

In April 2007, a special operations task group of around 300 people was relocated to Uruzgan to strengthen it .

The government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd decided in October 2008 to replace the Reconstruction Task Forces with the Mentoring and Reconstruction Task Forces (MRTF) in order to take on the additional task of promoting the 4th Brigade of the Afghan National Army . The first MRTF consisted of about 440 people.

In support of Barack Obama's policy on Afghanistan , Rudd announced on April 30, 2009 that he would be sending an additional 450 people to Afghanistan. This means that a total of 1550 Australians are stationed in Afghanistan. Some of the additional staff consists of members of the Australian Federal Police to train the police in Uruzgan Province. Another part is a 120-person Election Support Force , which was relocated to Uruzgan especially for the election of the Afghan President in July 2009, and two additional Operational Mentor and Liaison Teams of around 100 people.

The role of the Mentoring and Reconstruction Task Forces was increasingly focused in February 2010 by the Rudd Cabinet on promoting the Afghan army in the Uruzgan province and so the name of the task force was changed to Mentoring Task Force . The new task is to implement the new strategy of ISAF commander Stanley A. McChrystal , the so-called " partnering ". Afghan soldiers and ISAF soldiers go on patrol together.

After the Dutch announced their withdrawal from Uruzgan Province at the beginning of 2010, the Rudd government decided in April 2010 not to move additional soldiers to Afghanistan.

Kill capture strategy

There have been reports of war crimes committed by Australian forces in Afghanistan, particularly against soldiers from the Australian Special Air Service Regiment . This concerned the unlawful killing of unarmed civilians and children, the unjustified execution of prisoners of war and the desecration of corpses by severing the hands of dead insurgents. Ben Wadham, a former Australian soldier and military investigator, sees a "kill capture" strategy on the part of the Australian military in this military conflict. This consists in identifying a location as a strategic target, a raid squad entering the houses of the village and the people encountered being killed. Operation Phoenix is recognized as a pattern . On June 5, 2019, led Australian police a raid in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation through.

costs

Australia's 2010–2011 budget for the war in Afghanistan is AU $ 915.6 million . In addition, AU $ 487.1 million is being invested in improving the armament of soldiers in Afghanistan.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ iCasualties: Australia
  2. ↑ Stuart Yeaman, Securing Afghanistan's future: Reconstruction Task Force operations in Uruzgan Province (PDF file; 400 kB)
  3. ^ Australianpolitics.com: Howard Announces Additional Troops To Afghanistan
  4. ↑ defense.gov.au: Mentoring and Reconstruction Task Forces 1
  5. ↑ defencenews: Australia to Boost Afghan Forces by 450  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.defensenews.com  
  6. ↑ abc.net: Rudd to boost civilian effort in Afghanistan
  7. ↑ D. Oakes & S. Clark 2017: The Afghan files. In: Australian Broadcasting Corporation , News, July 11, 2017.
  8. ↑ Ben Wadham: New claims of war crimes by Australian special forces shine light on culture of impunity. In: The Guardian , July 11, 2017.
  9. ↑ Deutsche Welle : ABC offices raided by Australian police, June 5, 2019.
  10. ↑ defense.gov.au: Budget 2010-11 - Defense budget overview