ISAF Spokesman Headquarters International Security Assistance Force Kabul, Afghanistan

Operational update 18 July 2010

German Army Brig. Gen. Josef Blotz:
Salaam-a aleikum, ladies and gentlemen!

Welcome to the ISAF weekly update.

Today I want to share with you a recently declassified message that was intercepted in June. The message was from Mullah Omar, who’s hiding in Pakistan, to his subordinate commanders in Afghanistan. We believe this guidance provides important insight into recent events. As you may be aware, the Taliban are causing an alarmingly high number of civilian casualties, and they have also begun attacking those who have chosen to serve the people of Afghanistan as public servants. The guidance is a letter from Mullah Omar to his commanders; in the letter he gives five orders...specifically:

- Fight Coalition forces to the death without withdrawing or surrendering; attempt to capture coalition forces whenever possible.
- Capture and kill any Afghan who is supporting and/or working for Coalition forces or the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
- Capture and kill any Afghan women who are helping or providing information to Coalition forces.
- Recruit anyone that has access to Coalition Forces bases and have the ability to collect detailed information about coalition forces.
- Purchase or obtain more heavy weapons such as rocket propelled grenades, machine guns and anti aircraft machine guns.

This message was captured at the beginning of June.

Since then, let’s examine what’s happened: Since June 1 188 civilians have been killed by insurgents. Many of these deaths were caused by insurgent use of indiscriminate tactics like pressure plate IEDs, automatic machine gun fire, and suicide bombers. But there were also attacks directed against specific targets.

- Gul Mohammad, chief of statistics for Charkh District Logar province, was shot by Taliban insurgents while returning from morning prayers July 13
- Also on July 13, Hayatollah Agha, principal for the education department for Myz Nesdin District, Kandahar was shot and killed by Taliban insurgents. Apparently teaching children is a crime in the eyes of the Taliban.
- On July 10 Mohammad Riza, head prosecutor for Kwahjai Omari, Ghazni, was shot by insurgents who attacked him from motorbikes.

The common thing between these attacks is that all these men had chosen to serve the people as public servants, and because of this they were killed. This proves the Taliban are willing to ignore their own Code of Conduct when they sense that they are losing influence and control. And make no mistake, that is what’s happening as more ANSF take to the streets, and more ISAF forces arrive to assist them.

As many of you know, Coalition forces have killed 182 Taliban commanders in the last six months. But what you didn’t know is that is only part of the picture. Since the beginning of June when Mullah Omar ordered members of his network never to surrender, 14 insurgent commanders, 9 sub commanders, 32 facilitators and more than 350 insurgents were captured in operations where the assault force didn’t have to fire a shot...when Afghan National Security Forces offered the opportunity to surrender, the insurgents willingly gave up. So either Mullah Omar’s command and control has been seriously disrupted, or insurgents, including commanders, are ignoring his orders. We are seeing indications that insurgents are starting to realize, and in some cases complain about their leader hiding safely in Pakistan while ordering them to die in battles they can’t win. Alongside our Afghan partners, we will continue our efforts against Omar’s network in the days and weeks ahead.