Apaches "strike a blow" at Taliban leadership

[Anth]

British troops using Apache attack helicopters have killed a key Taliban leader and up to ten members of his cell during an operation in Helmand Province.


An Apache helicopter
[Picture: Staff Sergeant Mike Harvey]

The intelligence-led, precision missile strike was carried out by members of 664 Army Air Corps on Thursday 26 June 2008. The attack took place 10 kilometres north west of Kajaki.

The Apache engaged the vehicle in which the Taliban leader Sadiqullah was travelling with two Hellfire missiles. It is thought that Sadiqullah was the mastermind behind a spate of recent roadside bomb and suicide attacks against British, NATO and Afghan forces operating in the area.

British military spokesman in Helmand, Lieutenant Colonel Robin Matthews, said:

"This was a deliberate and surgical strike against a man who facilitated a number of fatal attacks on British, NATO and Afghan forces and civilians. It was conducted with meticulous precision and strikes a blow at the heart of the Taliban's leadership in southern Afghanistan."

The number of 'asymmetric' attacks against Afghan and NATO security forces has increased in recent months, as the Taliban has been put on the back foot by NATO efforts and increasingly forced to rely on suicide and roadside bombs rather than conventional attacks.

This latest Apache operation is part of NATO's ongoing campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan whose activities threaten to undermine the efforts of the Afghan Government to extend security and governance across the country.

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