ISAF operations management in the Kunduz area (2009-2014)
| date | April 2009 - December 2013 |
|---|---|
| place | Northern Afghanistan |
| output | After the situation in the province deteriorated considerably in 2009, control was gradually regained by ISAF and the Afghan security forces from 2010. After the withdrawal of ISAF forces in 2013, the insurgents regained strength. |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
|
Coalition Germany United States Afghanistan Belgium Armenia Netherlands |
|
| Commander | |
|
Former commanders:
|
Insurgents |
| Troop strength | |
| Coalition More than 3000 (not at the same time)
|
Insurgents Up to 320 at the same time
|
| losses | |
|
Coalition |
Insurgents |
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Since the first half of 2009 took German soldiers of the ISAF , together with soldiers of the Afghan National Army and other Afghan security forces ( Afghan National Police , intelligence National Directorate of Security ) several military operations to stabilize the region of Kunduz in northern Afghanistan where there since early 2009 massive to an increase in Presence of Taliban fighters, criminals, drug smugglers and insurgents. The fighting and the associated offensive warfare by the Allied troops began after an unsuccessful attack by insurgents on the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) Kunduz shortly after the visit of German Chancellor Angela Merkel on April 7, 2009.
Reasons for the increased occurrence of insurgents in the Kunduz area
Before the Taliban government was overthrown in December 2001 by the invasion of a US-led military alliance, Kunduz Province was a Taliban stronghold in Afghanistan and a front-line city in the longstanding civil war between the Northern Alliance and the Islamist radicals.
In 2003, ISAF units under German leadership began stationing troops in northern Afghanistan (Regional Command North) and setting up two reconstruction teams in Kunduz and Faizabad to create security for the reconstruction of the country. Most of the Taliban had already fled the Kunduz region by then or had been captured after the fighting had ended.
Until 2007, the multinational force (Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, Croatia) in the Kunduz PRT mainly faced the threat of unconventional explosive devices (USBV or IED - Improvised Explosive Device), suicide bombers and occasional attacks with hand weapons by criminals. A resurgence of the Taliban only became apparent in May 2007, when three German soldiers were killed by a suicide bomber on the market square in Kunduz. The attack marked the end of relative stability in this province. This was particularly evident from the massive, ongoing attacks with unguided rockets on the German field camp since September 2007.
This development prompted the German Ministry of Defense to send reinforcement forces to Kunduz at the end of 2007 in order to show more presence in the area and to be able to prevent any terrorist activity. The 200 paratroopers and reconnaissance forces then arriving in February 2008 ensured a noticeable improvement in the security situation in the province and a decrease in the number of rocket attacks on the camp. However, the offensive action of the paratroopers also led to an increase in the number of wounded and dead on the part of the ISAF. For example, a paratrooper from Paratrooper Battalion 263 was fatally wounded by a booby trap while on patrol while crossing a river ford near Kunduz. Two paratroopers from the same battalion were killed on October 20 in the Chahar Darreh district while conducting an operation by a suicide bomber.
With the announcement of the newly elected US President Barack Obama that he wants to increase the ISAF troop contingent in Afghanistan by 17,000 US soldiers and massively expand the fight against the Taliban in the hotly contested east and south of the country, as well as drug cultivation, a proven source of To prevent terrorist financing, the work of the international protection force has acquired a new quality. In order to be able to guarantee the reconstruction in safety, the advance and influence of radical insurgents had to be stopped first.
The increased occurrence of insurgents in the north resulted on the one hand from the enormous military pressure that the ISAF was able to build up in eastern and southern Afghanistan as well as in the tribal areas of Pakistan. Evasive fighters tried harder to get to the west and north of the country, along the " Ring Road " that spanned all of Afghanistan , in order to shift their military focus there. On the other hand, the fight against the leadership of the Taliban and Al-Qaida in Pakistan through US-guided drone operations led to the demand for the establishment of a second front in the north, which led to an expansion of attacks, attacks and terror against the ISAF troops in the regional command north Result. The leadership of the Taliban in Quetta ordered the Taliban leaders in Kunduz to intensify the fight against foreign troops. The presumed aim of the insurgents is to weaken the northern region so that Germany ends its engagement in Afghanistan and thus the international military cooperation in Afghanistan is greatly weakened.
In the course of the Pakistani military offensive in the Swat Valley from April to June 2009 and then in the Pashtun tribal areas with the aim of smashing the Taliban in Pakistan, the presence of Islamist and, above all, foreign fighters in northern Afghanistan, heading west from the battlefields of Pakistan, increased were able to flee across the border on both sides.
Course of operations
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Concerted operations began with "provocative" patrols into the heartland of the Taliban, dubbed "Talibania" by Bundeswehr soldiers. German and Afghan soldiers searched several homesteads and farmhouses in the Kunduz province. Four alleged insurgents and two ANA soldiers were killed during acts of resistance. In addition, 40 alleged insurgents were captured. In addition, several hidden arsenals were excavated. Bundeswehr units were then sent on longer patrols in order to achieve a presence in the deep. These patrols were attacked several times in the following years, but suffered no losses.
On April 29, 2009, German and Afghan infantry forces undertook a reconnaissance operation to determine enemy activity in the Charhar Darreh area west of Kunduz. Around noon, a suicide bomber attacked a German unit and wounded five soldiers. On the same day, a German convoy of Jäger Battalion 292 was ambushed on the "Road Banana" while marching into the German field camp. After the vehicles had managed to break out of the ambush in response to the fire and to continue the march, they got into a second firefight a kilometer further: around fifty insurgents attacked the German convoy along a distance of 1500 m from several prepared positions tactically planned with handguns and bazookas. A German soldier fell and four soldiers were wounded, making for the first time since the Second World War a German soldier was killed in an armed conflict. An enemy bazooka was also shot, as were two potential suicide bombers who approached the convoy on motorcycles.
On May 7, ISAF made another attempt to take control of the disputed Charhar Darreh district. Late at noon, German units were attacked on the outskirts between Kunduz and Chahar Darreh. German and Afghan reinforcement forces surrounded the attackers, fought with them for about twenty-four hours and fought the enemy with the help of close air support . Seven enemy fighters were killed, 14 wounded and several captured. On the same day, soldiers from the Special Forces Command, together with Afghan security forces and ISAF units, carried out an access operation near Faizabad, during which the Taliban commander for northeastern Afghanistan, Abdul Razeq, was captured. A KSK soldier injured himself in the difficult terrain.
In the period that followed, the Kunduz PRT was reinforced by other German forces. At the same time, the general security situation deteriorated. For example, all girls' schools in Chahar Darreh were closed by the locals for fear of attacks by the Taliban. In May 2009 there were repeated attacks and skirmishes between ISAF and Islamist insurgents.
Operation Sahda Ehlm
On June 4, German protection forces of the Kunduz PRT, together with the Quick Reaction Force of the regional commander, undertook another offensive operation in the Chahar-Darreh district after a German patrol on the city limits of Kunduz was ambushed in the green belt. Ten insurgents were killed in the heavy fighting that followed.
On June 7, two German soldiers were shot at in Chahar Darreh. In addition, one insurgent was killed and two wounded. In further skirmishes, the insurgents suffered losses of 7 dead and 14 wounded. On June 15, around 10:50 a.m., a patrol of the Afghan army together with soldiers from a Belgian Liaison Team (OMLT) northwest of the Kunduz PRT was shot at. In the ensuing battle, the Afghans deployed close air support. When German and Afghan reinforcements arrived, the enemy could be forced to evade. Two Afghan soldiers were killed and two others injured in the course of the battle. The attackers had five dead and four injured.
On June 23, the conflict broke out again when around 300 German and Afghan soldiers were attacked by insurgents just a few kilometers from Kunduz. Three Germans were killed when their armored personnel carrier fell into a moat during an evasive maneuver and overturned. Three attackers were also killed. In the period that followed, there were frequent skirmishes and ISAF facilities in Kunduz were again the target of mortar and rocket attacks.
Operation Oqab
The German-Afghan efforts in July 2009 in the course of Operation Oqab ( Operation Adler ) led to fierce fighting from July 20, in which the Bundeswehr used light artillery (mortars) and armored personnel carriers for the first time in its history. 16 insurgents were killed, 12 wounded and 14 captured. Two Afghan civilians were also killed when German soldiers, who feared a suicide attack, shot at their car. The Taliban then carried out a number of attacks, killing a number of civilians.
Although the situation calmed down for about a week afterwards, observers warned that the Taliban had not yet been defeated and that they could return to Chahar Darreh soon. This was also shown by a sharp increase in new attacks on German soldiers. For example, on August 7, a Bundeswehr soldier was shot during a battle. On August 16, the insurgents also attacked supplies for the ISAF and Afghan agencies for the first time.
The Afghan presidential elections at the end of August were eagerly awaited as there were fears that Taliban activities would soar; in fact, however, the polls in Kunduz were rather calm.
Operation Aragon
In September 2009, however, serious clashes took place again. In the Imam Shahib district on September 3, there were firefights between insurgents and Bundeswehr soldiers who were used to secure Afghan security forces in an operation against the Taliban. Eleven insurgents were killed and four German soldiers wounded. Several German vehicles were destroyed; Military equipment was destroyed or damaged on both sides.
Air raid near Kunduz
In the early morning of September 4, the PRT command requested a devastating air strike on two fuel trucks that had been hijacked by the Taliban and got stuck in a ford about 7 kilometers from the German camp. According to the Afghan government, 69 insurgents and up to 30 civilians were killed. The air attack and the subsequent information policy of Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung sparked national and international criticism. At the end of November 2009, the General Inspector of the Bundeswehr, Wolfgang Schneiderhan , and Franz Josef Jung, who was now in charge of the Ministry of Labor after the federal election on September 27, 2009, resigned from their offices.
The next day three German soldiers were wounded in a suicide bombing. In further clashes in the following weeks, eight German soldiers were wounded, including a woman for the first time, according to media reports. Bundeswehr commandos also managed to capture 15 suspected insurgents in a surprise attack at the beginning of October. On October 20, on the fringes of humanitarian aid, fighting broke out between Bundeswehr soldiers and insurgents, in which at least one attacker was killed.
Special forces operation in Gor Tepa
At the beginning of November 2009, US special forces intervened to support the fighting. According to media reports, Afghan security forces joined them in attacking a large group of insurgents in Gor Tepa; German soldiers were entrusted with securing the operational area and cut off the escape routes for fleeing insurgents. Up to 133 insurgents were killed, 13 were wounded and 25 were captured; one US soldier was killed and one Afghan soldier wounded. Qari Bashir Haqqani, one of the highest Taliban leaders in Kunduz, is also said to have been among the dead.
The Afghan-American offensive ended on November 10th.
The next day, an Afghan-German patrol suffered losses when it was ambushed in Chahar Darreh and a German and an Afghan were wounded. For the first time, CH-53GS helicopters were also shot at from the ground and had to turn back for safety reasons due to minor damage. On November 15, there was another incident of this kind: This time an aircraft was involved, on board the Federal Minister of Defense Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg . In the years that followed, German soldiers fought almost daily with enemy fighters.
Operation Expand to Southern Chahar Darreh
Another offensive was launched on December 14th. The unit deployed consisted of 300 Bundeswehr soldiers and 300 members of the Afghan security forces. The aim was to establish a permanent outpost in Chahar Darreh at height 431 and to regain the trust of the population in the local security forces. The offensive should last until December 20th. Pioneers and members of 4./PzGrenBtl 391 got into a skirmish with the Taliban on the morning of December 14th when they tried to build a bridge to Chahar Darreh to make the Kunduz River passable. Even more violent fighting was reported in the days that followed, in which two German soldiers were wounded in combat and "some" Taliban fighters were killed, including their leader Mullah Ahsanullah.
Operation Gala-e-Gorg
At the end of January 2010, another infantry company with 5 Marder AFVs and 18 dingoes was relocated to Kunduz (the fourth German infantry company in the Kunduz area). Immediately after their arrival and the conference in London, 470 German and 120 Afghan soldiers and police officers started the “Gala-e-Gorg” (wolf pack) operation on January 27, 2010. The aim of the operation is to restore the freedom of movement of international troops. At the end of the mission, the Afghan forces are to set up at least a few checkpoints in the area. The operation thus represents the largest personnel participation of German forces in such an offensive.
Battle on Good Friday
On April 2, 2010 at 1 p.m. local time, a German patrol in the Chahar Darreh area (alternatively written as Chahar Dara), where a permanent outpost had been set up in mid-December (see above), was ambushed during a mine clearance operation and preparation for a bridge . Depending on the sources, between 30 and 200 Taliban fighters are said to have holed up in residential buildings. The insurgents opened fire with rifles and bazookas after some of the soldiers left their armored vehicles. In the following firefight, which lasted for several hours, six German soldiers were wounded, some seriously, of which three died shortly afterwards. When the Bundeswehr soldiers wanted to withdraw, an ATF Dingo vehicle hit a booby trap; four other German soldiers were injured, some seriously. Reinforcements were then brought in and the wounded were flown to the Kunduz field camp in two US Sikorsky UH-60 helicopters , one with German paramedics and the other as fire protection. Four seriously injured people had to be transferred directly to the better equipped field camp in Mazar-i-Sharif and were later flown to Germany. In addition, support was requested from the US Air Force; however, there was no use of weapons, only a so-called show of force . The troops on the ground could not use heavy weapons either, as the fighting took place in inhabited areas. While reinforcements were being brought in, a tragic incident occurred when a Ford SUV, which was apparently armed and did not stop despite repeated requests, was shot at by a Marder armored personnel carrier. Five Afghan soldiers died in the process. The vehicle is said not to have been recognizable as belonging to the ANA, as vehicles of this type also ended up in the hands of the Taliban and the ANA currently has neither uniform uniforms nor a functioning radio network.
Operation Halmazag
see main article: Operation Halmazag
Operation Towse A Garbe II
see main article: Operation Towse A Garbe II
Use of special forces to combat the enemy leadership
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Since October 2009, the armed forces of the United States and Germany have been deploying covert special forces in the provinces of Kunduz and Takhar to combat the opposing leadership of the Taliban, the Islamic Movement Uzbekistan (IMU) and the Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin (HIG). In November 2009 , units of the US Special Forces and soldiers of the Afghan army openly fought against insurgents in an area known as the "Mesopotamia" northwest of Kunduz city. In this operation (“Wadi-e-Cauca”), according to media reports, the Americans and Afghans were supported by German soldiers who were responsible for locking off and monitoring the operation area along the Kunduz River.
From December 2009, the United States also deployed Task Force 373 to hunt down Taliban and insurgent leaders in the provinces of Kunduz and Baghlan, who are supposed to capture or kill human targets in night operations. These operations resulted in the elimination of several high-ranking leaders, but also logisticians and IED manufacturers of the insurgents within a very short time, and put enormous pressure on them in addition to the regular operations of ISAF and OEF troops. Since the spring of 2010, this special unit has been replaced by Task Force 3-10, which received the same order as its predecessor in all of northern Afghanistan.
Since 2007, the Bundeswehr has been deploying a unit of the Special Forces Command, Task Force 47 , in the Mazar-e-Sharif and Kunduz areas, whose main tasks are the capture of enemy leaders and the training of Afghan special forces. On October 21, 2010, Task Force 47 captured former Taliban commander Maulawi Roshan in a night operation and, together with a special unit of the Afghan police, arrested several Taliban on December 21, 2010, including booby-trap expert Hayatollah, in the village of Khalazai in the Chahar Dara district. According to media reports in the Bild newspaper on October 23, 2012, members of the KSK on October 19, 2012 in the village of Ghunday Kalay, Chahar Darreh district, the " Taliban shadow governor" of Kunduz province, together with members of an allied Afghan, Mullah Abdul Rahman Police special unit arrested in a night raid. Details of the operation were not confirmed by the Bundeswehr or the ISAF protection force .
Handover of the PRT Kunduz and end of the German military engagement
On Sunday, October 6, 2013, the Provincial Reconstruction Team Kunduz was handed over to the Afghan security forces in the presence of the Federal Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle and the Federal Defense Minister Thomas de Maizière. This formally ended the Bundeswehr's military engagement in the Kunduz province. The camp was to be used as a base by the Afghan National Army (ANA) and as a training facility by the Afghan National Civil Order Police (ANCOP).
development
Since April 2009, the worst skirmishes that German infantry forces had to fight after the end of the Second World War took place in northern Afghanistan. The fighting also symbolizes the change in the German security strategy in the Regional Command North, now that insurgents that are increasingly offensive are now being targeted and destroyed in order to prevent the Taliban from regaining strength.
The intensity of the fighting sparked a debate in Germany regarding the legal assessment of the Bundeswehr's mission in Afghanistan. For a long time, German governments did not treat this mission as a war mission. Some - mainly foreign - observers suspected that the ongoing fighting would influence the behavior of voters in the 2009 federal elections , but this was not the case. Others saw the willingness of the federal government to take on more responsibility as a response to the harsh criticism with which allies had responded in the past to German reservations in Afghanistan.
See also
- Deaths during foreign deployments of the Bundeswehr
- War in Afghanistan since 2001
- Task Force Mazar-e Sharif
- Operation Harekate Yolo
- Operation Karez
- Operation Taohid
- Observation Post North
literature
- Bell, Anthony; Witter, David; Whittaker, Michael: Reversing the
Northeastern Insurgency, in: Institute for the Study of War (Ed.): Afghanistan Report, Issue 9, Washington DC 2011.
- Brinkmann, Sascha; Hoppe, Joachim; Schröder, Wolfgang (Ed.): Feindkontakt. Combat reports from Afghanistan, ESMittler Verlag, 2013.
- Chauvistré, Eric: We good warriors. Frankfurt am Main 2009.
- Chiari, Bernhard (ed.): Afghanistan - guide to history. 2nd edition, Paderborn 2007.
- Clair, Johannes: Four days in November . Econ-Verlag, 2012, ISBN 3-430-20138-1 .
- Koelbl, Susanne; Ihlau, Olaf: War in the Hindu Kush. People and powers in Afghanistan. Munich 2009.
- Löfflmann, Georg: Defense in the Hindu Kush? The civil power Germany and the war in Afghanistan. Hamburg 2008.
- Radtke, Anja: Afghanistan since September 11th, 2001. The efforts of the international community of states to create a stable security situation. Saarbrücken 2008.
- Seliger, Marco: From the war , in: loyal. Security Policy Magazine 10/2010, pp. 6–17.
- Seliger, Marco: Die for Kabul - Records of a suppressed war. Hamburg 2011.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bundeswehr -Presseerklärung: Afghanistan: Gen. replaced translators for health reasons , accessed on 4 December 2009
- ↑ Berliner Zeitung , 2000 dollars for relatives of the Kunduz victims ( memento of March 26, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), September 28, 2009, accessed on December 4, 2009
- ↑ Bernama [1]
- ↑ star [2]
- ↑ image [3]
- ↑ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Bundeswehr mission in Afghanistan - single-minded into battle
- ↑ Dawn.com
- ↑ Al Jazeera [4]
- ↑ Deutsche Welle [5]
- ↑ The world [6]
- ↑ The Taliban are threatening further attacks on the Bundeswehr . Mirror online
- ↑ Ralf Beste, Matthias Gebauer, Holger Stark, Alexander Szandar: Dead or alive . In: Der Spiegel . No. 22 , 2009 ( online ).
- ↑ azstarnet
- ↑ Focus TV Report [7] "The German soldiers call it Talibania."
- ↑ Several fatalities in suicide attacks . Mirror online
- ↑ Bundeswehr press release [8]
- ↑ Bundeswehr press release [9]
- ↑ The world [10]
- ↑ Bundeswehr press release [11]
- ↑ army -Presseerklärung [12]
- ↑ Hamburger Abendblatt [13]
- ↑ Sina [14]
- Jump up ↑ The Taliban's flash comeback . Mirror online
- ↑ Bundeswehr press release [15]
- ↑ Zeit [16] "After all, on August 16, two Taliban tankers were set on fire in the region."
- ↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung - ( Memento of the original from December 14, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Afghan government report burdens Bundeswehr . Mirror online
- ↑ Bundeswehr press release [17]
- ↑ The world [18]
- ↑ The mirror [19]
- ↑ New York Times [20]
- ↑ The Wall Street Journal [21]
- ↑ The mirror [22]
- ↑ Bundeswehr press release [23]
- ↑ Bundeswehr press release [24]
- ↑ Bundeswehr press release [25]
- ↑ Xinhua archive link ( Memento of the original from January 14, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ The mirror [26]
- ^ Heavy fighting near Kunduz - three German soldiers killed in Afghanistan
- ↑ Heavy fighting near Kunduz - German soldiers killed in Afghanistan ( Memento from April 5, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Three Bundeswehr soldiers killed in Afghanistan. In: nzz.ch. April 2, 2010, accessed October 14, 2018 .
- ^ Taliban attack on the Bundeswehr: Bloody Good Friday in Camp Kunduz. In: Spiegel Online . April 2, 2010, accessed June 9, 2018 .
- ^ Matthias Gebauer: Fighting near Kunduz: Three Bundeswehr soldiers die in a battle in Afghanistan. In: Spiegel Online . April 2, 2010, accessed June 9, 2018 .
- Jump up ↑ Afghanistan: Deadly Error in a Sandstorm. In: Spiegel Online . April 10, 2010, accessed June 9, 2018 .
- Jump up ↑ Afghanistan - Military: 130 extremists killed in offensive near Kunduz
- ↑ [27]
- ↑ [28]
- ↑ [29]
- ↑ AFP: Afghanistan: Task Force 47 arrests Taliban leaders. In: Zeit Online. September 22, 2010, accessed January 17, 2011 .
- ↑ [30]
- ↑ Bundeswehr involved in the arrest of a Taliban leader . Article of the FAZ October 24, 2012 ( [31] )
- ↑ ( Archive link ( Memento of the original from February 18, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. )
- ↑ [32]
- ↑ The world [33]
- ↑ Hamburger Abendblatt [34]
- ↑ Times [35]
