Soldiers, ANP work together in Qara Bagh

  GHAZNI PROVINCE, Afghanistan – Over a lunch of rice, potatoes, flat bread and lamb, a friendly, slender man with a fairly close cropped beard (by Afghan standards) speaks of an incident that turned him against the Taliban.

Afghan National Police 3rd Lt. Abdul Rauf, the new ANP chief of police at the Qara Bagh District Center in Ghazni province, Afghanistan, tells Coalition troops of a harrowing experience.
   
“At age 17 the Taliban beat me and cut off all my hair, so I just put it in my heart and from that day I swore I would fight the Taliban, Rauf said. “That’s the only reason I am here, to fight the Taliban.”

Rauf was motivated to work with the Americans and against the Taliban.
 

“The first day Americans came here, I am working for you,” he added.
   
And, that’s the kinds of support that American forces from 3rd Platoon, Company D, 1st Battalion, 121st Infantry Regiment, 48th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, a Combined Action Unit, rely on.

“In a CAU the spectrum is bigger,” explained the platoon leader for 3rd Platoon, U.S. Army 1st Lt. David Esra, of Athens, Ga. “It’s the whole government, not just the police. As a CAU we also work with the village elders and sub-governors in each district. The idea is to develop a government that the people see works for them.”
   
Esra’s unit works hard to get the Afghan people to take responsibility for their country.
   
“Everything is supposed to be Afghan lead,” he said. “The Combined Action piece is where we run missions with the Afghan National Security Force. We still mentor them through the military decision-making process and we guide them through the planning process, but they lead the way. People see them in front.”
   
U.S. Army Capt. William Broach, commander, Co. D, 1-121 Inf. Reg., reinforced the importance of the ANSF and 3rd Platoon’s work.
   
“It’s putting the ANSF out there and letting the people see them and getting the people to gain confidence in their security and the ability of their government to support them,” Broach said. “3rd platoon has led the way in mentoring and teaching the ANP in Qara Bagh, taking them from a sub-standard force to a highly proficient fighting unit.”