HERAT, Afghanistan – Southern Strike, an important joint operation which involved the Italian soldiers from Regional Command West in support of their colleagues of the Afghan National Army, has just ended.
The operation, structured into two executive phases, was carried out following a complex operational schedule planned by the 207th ANA Corps together with their colleagues from the 215th Corps, to conduct an operation against the enemies of Afghanistan who were operating in the border area between the west and southwest regions of the country.
As a premise of the operation, the helicopters of the Italian Task Force 'Fenice', supported by a unit of the Italian Task Force 'Victor', have identified and destroyed some repeaters located in the area, used by the extremists for communications.
The first part of the operation included the replacement of an entire battalion of the 207th Corps stationed at a Forward Operating Base (FOB) in the southern part of the Gulistan district. During this phase the Task Force 'Fenice' provided the security of the area using two helicopters A-129 'Mangusta' and two NH-90 - with a sharpshooter and an advanced air traffic control of the Task Force 'Victor' onboard - in support to the Afghan Air Force MI-17 helicopters used to transfer the Afghan personnel.
During the second phase, the 207th Corps conducted a thorough and intense patrol of 'the Devil's elbow', an area along the road that connects Herat with the south of Gulistan, to ensure the freedom of movement for the coalition troops and the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), as well as strengthening the ANA check points along the route.
In this context, also the Transition Support Unit – South and the Military Advisor Team (MAT) soldiers from Regional Command West provided support to the ANSF. Likewise, the U.S. Engineer Task Force 'Saw', together with their Afghan colleagues, guaranteed the route clearance from IEDs that were potentially placed by the enemies of Afghanistan.
Decisive was also the contribution of the italian Joint Air Task Force (JATF) assets that provided aerial support and reconnaissance, as well as the surveillance of the area.
The success of the 15 days operation – which represents further confirmation of the increasing quality of the ANSF that, by the end of 2013, will oversee the conduct of all military operations in the western region of the country - is also demonstrated by the results: seized 500 kg of explosive substances, carried out numerous checks on suspicious personnel and installations and disrupted the network of the extremists who used the area between the provinces of Baqwa and Nimroz for illegal trade, production of IEDs and logistics bases.
| Date Taken: | 06.13.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 06.13.2013 00:47 |
| Story ID: | 108568 |
| Location: | HERAT, AF |
| Web Views: | 283 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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