Operation "Moshtarak" and sas in Afghanistan (2010) En ingles

OPERATION “MOSHTARAK” AND THE SAS IN AFGHANISTAN
(2010)
Operation “Moshtarak” was a 2-phase undertaking by the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan (February 13-25 and February 26-December 7, 2010) to wrest control of the “poppy-growing belt” of Helmand province in southern Afghanistan from the Taliban and its supporters. Involving more than 15,000 allied troops, largely in the Nad Ali and Lashkar Gah districts, “Moshtarak” combated a Taliban strength said by the allies to total between 400 and 1,000 men, but by the Taliban itself as 2,000 men. The operation cost the allies more than 61 dead, and the Taliban more than 120 and 56 captured in the first phase alone.
“Moshtarak” proper was proceded by a little known and still heavily classified undertaking in wich the Allies sought effectively to decapitate theTaliban in this theater by killing or capturing much of its leadership. A leading role was played in this task by the so-called Task Force 42, whose size was revealed by Prime Minister Gordon Brown to be slightly fewer than 500 men of the British special forced. Historically, the core element of the British special forces in Afghanistan was the Special Boat Service supplemented by a detachment from the Special Reconnaissance Regiment, men of the Special Forces Support Group, reservists of the 21st and 23rd SAS, supported by assorted communications , intelligence, and aviation assets. Whit the U.K.’s withdrawal of its last combat forces from Iraq in 2009, the special forces in afghanistan were bolstered by the arrival of the regulars of 2 squadrons of the 22nd SAS.
An unknown number of the various elements of the British special forces were allocated to TF 42, a unit closely associated whit 2 comparable U.S. units, TFs121 and 373. These 3 tasks forces are believed to have carried out a series of so-called “captured/kill” operations on the basis of the “Joint Prioritized Effects List” (JPEL), which is classified “hit list” of Taliban leaders. It is believed the U.S. special operations forces were assigned high-level targets while the British special forces concentrated on medium-level targets.
From January 2010 the Allied Forces had launched a number of smaller undertakings, so-called “shaping operations” to ready the way for the start of the main assault on February 13. One of these “shaping operations” comprised a series of nocturnal raids by four-man SAS and US Navy SEAL teams to located, pin, and destroy Key Taliban personnel. The leadership of the Allied coalition reported that these efforts led to the deaths of some 50 Taliban leaders in the area, although the effects of this decimation of the local Taliban leadership in event the shorter term remained a matter of debate.