Operation Malika-K (Princess Kate)

9th November 2011

Operation Malika-K (or Princess Kate when translated from Dari into English) was reported in the Sun Newspaper (p14) on 9^th November 2011. Here is a more detailed insight to Op Malika-K.

Operation Malikia-K 29 Oct- 1 Nov 2011

Hundreds of Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers cleared insurgents from a crucial area of Helmand Province in a large three day operation.

More than 300 soldiers from 3/215 Brigade swept through a 15-square-kilometre area close to Majar Bazaar in northern Nahr-e Saraj district before building a new checkpoint in Operation MALIKA K or ‘Princess Kate’. 

The operation - planned in response to a spike of insurgent activity in the area – was overseen by around 100 advisors from 2nd Battalion The Rifles Battlegroup, who as the Brigade Advisory Group are advising and training the Afghan brigade during the next six months.

The ANA were joined by 60 personnel from the Afghan National Police (ANP) to help clear the area north from Route Neptune towards Highway One.

Along the way, ANA engineers split off to build the checkpoint at Majar Bazaar along with the ANA’s 2nd ‘Kandak;’ or battalion, which provided security during the build and will now occupy the checkpoint.

More than 13 million Afghans live within 50 kilometres of Highway 1 which is a ring road equivalent to the M25, making it a vital link for trade and access to healthcare and education.

The new checkpoint, named CP Rah Matulla after an Afghan warrior who recently fell in battle, will help preserve freedom of movement and security for the local population.

The operation, which was planned and executed in five days and finished a day ahead of schedule, also discovered 15kg of heroin – with a street value of £2million – and two IEDs, which were dealt with by the ANA’s bomb disposal experts. And two AK47’s

Lieutenant Colonel Bill Wright, commanding officer of the Brigade Advisory Group led by 2 Rifles, said Afghan forces moved in after increasing IED attacks by insurgents in the area and reports from local Afghans of insurgent activity.

Col Wright said: “The operation took place incredibly with just 5 days of planning which a brigade size of operation with about 4-5 hundred people deploying on the ground, complete with Police, is particularly impressive. It came about a discussion between the District Governor of Gerersk, the deputy Chief of Police and the General Siron Shah. They decided that a CP on in this area of HW1 would greatly assist in the security of that area.

I first came out on a Reece here in January, some ten months ago, and they were doing some fairly complex, large operations but they were taking a week or two to plan doing very similar patrol CP builds. We came out again 6 months ago and again it was taking around about the same length of time. This time it was 5 days, so it was a very impressive operation.”

The CP has been positioned on an area where there have been a number of attacks on HW1 particularly against freight vehicles over the last 6 months. It’s well positioned overlooking a key bit of the road and we hope to see attacks there die off extremely quickly now the CP is manned.

It’s going to bring stability to the area and whilst we were on the ground some of the locals came to speak to the General and were they were very relieved to see that the Government, the ANP, and ANA were taking an active role in securing their area so they can continue with their life’s. A number of them have had property damaged and people killed during the attacks.

Major Tom Jefford, squadron leader of B Squadron, The Queen’s Royal Hussars, said British units had been on hand to support and monitor the operation.

He said:“This was the ANA’s plan from the start, and there was no sense of ISAF directing it. We advised to a degree on the plan but most of the work was already done. We tried to do a similar ‘clear’ operation in pre-deployment training, and I’ve got to say that the ANA were better. They moved through the area in an organised fashion and kept a balanced frontage as they swept across a large area.They had expected to do the clear operation in one day and they achieved that with time to spare.”

Brigadier General Sheren Shah, commander of the 3/215 Brigade, said the operation was critical to providing security in Nahr-e Saraj.

He Said: “The effect will improve the quality of life for local people. It will increase their freedom of movement and allow children to attend school, allow shop keepers to continue to sell their goods and to cleanse their area of any enemy. Compared to 6mths ago this has shown a marked improvement in the capability on operations and it also indicates an ability to work jointly with the police which is an improvement. Another area which has particularly improved is the ability of the Army to work on minor IED clearance and a co-operation between both locals and the ANA and the ANP which makes it a big success.”

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