Image Gallery 2010

06 May 2010
Aussie training of Afghans boosts Uruzgan security

The 12 Uruzgan police successfully completed the Special Operations Task Group’s Special Response Team Recon course in early April. They are the second group of PPR to complete the four-week course, which is aimed at building the capacity of Afghan Government authorities to improve security and protect the population from the Taliban.

The Officer Commanding the Special Operations Task Group’s Afghan Training Force (ATF), a Captain S, said the focus of the course was to enable the Afghans to eventually operate independently.

“They are not there to complement us we are there to complement them. We don’t train them to complement our capability, we train them for capacity building and eventually, to take over responsibility for security in Uruzgan in the future,” Captain S said.

He also explained that Afghans have an entirely different set of strengths

“We can train them to carry a weapon, cover the arcs, and walk and patrol like us, but they’re not us. You might be patrolling along and they will have their weapon on the their shoulder, or in one hand, or upside down, and then all of a sudden you can look around and they will have their weapons up and at the ready in response to a threat, and you will have seen nothing, but you know something’s not right. They are able to read the atmospherics far better than any of us, that’s something they can do extremely well,” he said.

Captain S said graduates of the Special Response Recon Course had been instrumental in the recent success of the SOTG in detaining a number of insurgents and some key Taliban commanders since early March this year.

“They know themselves the impact of those insurgents being captured. These guys were high-fiving each other after those hits. They know the impact they are having both in Tarin Kot and the wider province.

“This training is providing security, and that means the next priorities of the people of Uruzgan – namely health and education, can be allowed to be developed,” Captain S said.

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Another 12 members of Uruzgan’s Provincial Police Reserve (PPR) have graduated from an Australian Special Response training course in Tarin Kot.

(Date taken: 18 April 2010)
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