Members of the elite "Special Forces Command" in early May was the first time a KSK soldier killed in Afghanistan. (Source: Reuters)
What caused the death of Daniel W. elite in early May in Afghanistan? An analysis of the Bundeswehr now reveals the dramatic details of the deployment. The unexplained part played by Afghan partners in the operation, jeopardized the entire collaboration.
Berlin / Kabul - The investigation of a fatal incident in a joint operation of the Special Forces Command (KSK) and the Afghan police in early May could have dramatic consequences. In the army leadership have doubts about whether to continue working with the Afghan security forces is possible to grow. Of officers in Afghanistan and in Berlin it is, after the death of the elite in the Baghlan region in northern Afghanistan, the Afghans would have retired twice against the collusion of the first jointly controlled fighting. It is not even excluded that the Taliban got a tip of the Afghan security forces. Sometimes even a case of the speech.
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What in the afternoon of the 4th May occurred in the region of Baghlan, was first routine. By emergency turned to a special unit of the Afghan police, who was trained by KSK soldiers from a base in place Kilagai, to the German partners. It was in distress in a patrol near a river crossing in the village Zaman Khel. Insurgents would shoot at the police, shouted the Afghans in their mobile phones. What they wanted from the Germans, was clear. The special forces of the KSK, trained in close combat, should help the partners. Immediately moved from a small group of KSK-17 fighters, a perfectly normal process in the fight against the Taliban.
Of the much-vaunted partnership, the core of the future plans for cooperation between international and Afghan troops, according to statements of officers was then but little to feel. No sooner were the KSK-fighters arrived at the scene of the battle, the Afghans should have withdrawn up to 700 meters without any consultation, while they fired wildly into the air. The Germans were suddenly on the edge of a dense forest alone in the fight against multiple hidden shooters, so the descriptions of the chaotic situation. The invisible enemy they fired on with machine gun fire and rocket-propelled grenades.
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Fatal error
By radio asked the German soldiers in air support. Alone, without the help of bombers, they probably would have lost the fight. So, first appeared in the skies two German "Tiger" helicopter on, they fired rockets at the positions of the enemy, were added later helicopter of the U.S. Air Force. When the fire despite the rockets not subsided to the German soldiers called the KSK soldiers at the NATO command center for help. There they sent an A-10 bomber. This "Thunderbolt" threw off a veritable carpet bombing over the forest.
After the dust had settled again, there was initially quiet. NATO pilots in the air reeled from their routine protocols. After each bombing of international units, they have to shoot pictures of the discharge point and check if there are civilian casualties in accordance with the guidelines from Kabul. There is not much in the dense forest was to see the U.S. pilots used a thermal imaging camera. In the pictures of the sensors but was of the twelve Taliban fighters nothing left to see. Consequently, the KSK soldiers decided to look at the crime scene itself.
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This search proved to be a fatal mistake. No sooner were the KSK soldiers arrived at the spot from which they had been shot, they saw the ambush. Under a thick plastic tarp an armed attacker had hidden. The plastic tarp must have been so thick that the body warmth of the man was to be found on the sensor images of the A-10 bomber. Up close, he fired a complete surprise to the German KSK soldiers Daniel W., who died on site. On one of his comrades, a bullet pierced his helmet, injuring him seriously. Only by luck he survived.
Targeted ambush?
After the attack on the Germans broke a new battle, the approaching rescue helicopter of the U.S. Army were shot several times, at the bottom of the KSK and the team was back in the fire fight. Almost an hour it took to the fallen and the wounded soldier could be flown out of the danger zone. Even in this situation was apparently felt little solidarity with the Afghan police. While the Germans were fighting, as an expert on the use of secret reports, the Afghans were brought to safety and watched the battle from there.
The gleanings of the deadly attack has triggered serious doubts in the army. Prior to leading politicians defending himself recently acknowledged the Inspector General of the Armed Forces that we must completely revise cooperation with the Afghans. Even if just trained by the Germans or by the U.S. special forces units deemed to be reliable, the withdrawal from the fighting, the soldiers not only used, but also the level of the commander has massively insecure. "We had to re-learn that we can not rely on the Afghans," said an officer in northern Afghanistan, "here we are in the situation to them but rushed to help."
Fatal nor is the suspicion that members of the Afghan police, notices gave to the Taliban and the Germans have deliberately lured into the difficult-to-control forest area. A Taliban fighter told SPIEGEL ONLINE that the fighters would get "reports" that the German soldiers had made their way to the river crossing. Thereupon the commander Sheikh Samer had opened with his men there. One of his fighters have been hiding under the tarp and waited there until he could fire on the Germans.
In the army suspected a deliberate betrayal is not confirmed. It is however not excluded. Internally there is talk of how to further cooperate with the Afghans of a review. For emergency calls from the alleged partner of the Afghan security forces, however, you'll verify in future if it is not a targeted ambush.
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