Polish soldiers have carried out their first major offensive military operation against the Taliban in Afghanistan.
A week-long military operation called Orle Pioro (Eagle’s Feather) has been the biggest offensive conducted by Polish troops since they joined the multinational NATO-led campaign after the invasion in 2001.
Polish troops managed to capture twenty-nine Taliban fighters and seize machine guns, mortars, explosives and equipment for setting land mines. They also destroyed antennas in Ghazni, southeast Afghanistan, which the Taliban used to communicate with supporters in Pakistan.
During the operation four combat vehicles were damaged and three Polish soldiers were injured as a result of a mine explosion. They have been hospitalized in an American base in Bagram.
“The operation was a huge success,” said Dariusz Kacperczyk, spokesman for the Polish Operational Command. Polish soldiers who participated in the offensive are euphoric. “We finally started fighting. No longer do we just defend ourselves, but attack the enemy,” say the soldiers.
The action involved the first direct strike against insurgent positions and not merely the repulse of an enemy attack. Eight hundred Polish soldiers participated in the operation alongside the Afghan army.
In March, Defence Minister Bogdan Klich announced the change of role in Afghanistan in a year which sees presidential elections in the country. The 2000 troops stationed there will now be able to carry out offensive operations in an attempt to help quell a growing insurgency by Taliban troops.
