German army officers allow top Taliban commander to escape

German troop with German flag with allah on it

Arabic script for allah

Flag of Germany

This is ridiculous. Why have the German army in Afghanistan at all if they cannot function in a military manner. This picture says a lot about German intentions in Afghanistan. Notice the German flag on the cupola, it has what appears to be Arabic for allah painted in the center of it. What the green flag has on it I cannot make out, but it could also be Arabic for allah. Maybe the Germans think the Taliban won't shoot at the word allah.

This is going just a little too far to show unity with the Afghans.

No wonder the other coalition forces sneer at the Germans, which is a pity, because the troops are only following their governments non-rules of engagement.

The German governments rules of engagement are endangering EVERYONE, allied troops and Afghans alike.

FROM THE DAILYMAIL.CO.UK:

German army officers allow top Taliban commander to escape ... because they are not allowed to use lethal force
Last updated at 17:58pm on 19th May 2008
A top Taliban commander in Afghanistan with links to the killers of several British Army soldiers has escaped from German special forces because they were not authorised to kill him.
The fiasco highlights the absurd role played by the German military in the country which is known to other combat nations as "the bridge builders" because Berlin will not let them fire shots in any situation other than in self-defence.
German special forces had an important Taliban commander in their sights in Afghanistan but he escaped as the Germans were not authorised to use lethal force.
The German government's approach to the war is causing massive friction with its


The Taliban commander who escaped is known as the Baghlan Bomber - after he masterminded the November 2007 attack against a sugar factory in Baghlan province in which 79 people, many of them children, were murdered.
He has also organised roadside bombs in other areas which have struck British military convoys, and shelters suicide attackers before they perform their missions.

Intelligence officials also say he has strong links with Al-Qaeda warlords based in Pakistan and is one of the top logisticians of the Taliban struggle to destroy the fledgline democracy in Afghanistan.
Germany's KSK special forces had been charged with capturing the terrorist, in cooperation with the Afghan secret service and the Afghan army.
The German elite soldiers were able to uncover the Taliban commander's location. They spent weeks on his trail and at the end of March moved in to a location near the town of Pol-e-Khomri to seize him.

Wearing black and equipped with night-vision goggles, the team came within just a few hundred metres of their target before they were discovered by Taliban forces.
The KSK told their commanders it would have been possible to kill him but they were not allowed to do so.
"Warned of ISAF's activities and intent on taking revenge, the man and his network are active once again," the infulential German news magazine Der Spiegel said.
The case has sparked disgust at the headquarters of the ISAF peacekeeping force in Kabul where the current strategy is to "eliminate" Taliban hardliners through targeted assassinations.
Close to one-third of the Taliban leaders, about 150 commanders, have been "neutralized" - dead or captured.

Most of the missions are undertaken by British or American special forces.
It is unclear why the Germans were sent after the Baghlan Bomber but there are more and more Taliban insurgents pouring into the nine provinces the Germans command.
Maulawi Bashir Haqqani, 40, the Taliban's military commander in Kunduz, said: "The Germans are the most important enemy in the north. If they leave their base, they will find booby traps and bombs waiting for them on every road.
"They will have to carry many more bodies in coffins on their shoulders if they don't come to the realistic conclusion that their forces must withdraw from our country."
Berlin is sticking to its "principle of proportionality," stressed one high-ranking official in the defence ministry.
"A fugitive like the Baghlan bomber is not an aggressor and should not be shot unless necessary," the official said.
Critics accuse the Germans of achieving precisely the opposite effect of what they claim to be aiming for.
"The Krauts are allowing the most dangerous people to get away and are in the process increasing the danger for the Afghans and for all foreign forces here," one an incredulous British officer at ISAF headquarters told Spiegel.