TF 373 dedicated thread

[Jan Klimkowski]

Peter - I concur.

Here's some of the top level operational detail about TF 373 that has surfaced:

From The Guardian:

The leaked war logs show that Task Force 373 uses at least three bases in Afghanistan, in Kabul, Kandahar and Khost. Although it works alongside special forces from Afghanistan and other coalition nations, it appears to be drawing its own troops from the 7th Special Forces Group at Fort Bragg, North Carolina and to travel on missions in Chinook and Cobra helicopters flown by 160th special operations aviation regiment, based at Hunter Army Airfield, Georgia

From Der Spiegel:
The men of Task Force 373 come from different branches of the military, including Navy Seals and Delta Force, and act like a pack of wolves. They receive their missions directly from the Pentagon. The special forces often manage to catch their opponents alive. The secret documents include several dozen entries referring to transfers of captives to the notorious terrorist prison at Bagram airbase, north of Kabul. At times the TF 373 soldiers arrive with prisoners several times in one day and hand them over to the guards.

(snip)

Even though it is an American unit, the revelations of its secret operations are likely to embarrass the German government. Some 300 soldiers from TF-373 have been stationed at the German military base Camp Marmal since the sommer of 2009. They operate as part of the Northern Regional Command, which is under German command.

Their presence was an awkward issue from the start and was something of a taboo even under Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, who took over the ministry last October. His only reference to them was during a visit to the troops in November 2009 when he said vaguely that the Germans "are grateful for any help provided by the US Army." Elite troops had just spent five days attacking the Taliban bastion of Gul Tepa north-west of Kunduz. Some 130 people were killed, all of them insurgents, according to the US Army.

The Bundeswehr German army had refused to take part in the mission. The plans presented by a US major had look like a targeted killing operation against the Taliban.