Tarin Kot restoration after insurgent attacks

Photo By Master Sgt. Jocelyn Ford | A U.S. Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Armored Vehicle is positioned outside the deputy governor's compound Aug. 3, 2011, while members of the Provincial Reconstruction Team began their assessments of the damaged building in Tarin Kot, Uruzgan, Afghanistan. The compound suffered significant damages after men entered the building with improvised explosive devices and detonated them inside during a complex attack in Tarin Kot July 28, 2011.  

TARIN KOWT, AFGHANISTAN

08.03.2011

Story by Staff Sgt. Jocelyn Ford 

Provincial Reconstruction Team Uruzgan

TARIN KOT, Afghanistan - July 28, 2011, Tarin Kot fell victim to a complex attack by insurgents where multiple improvised explosive devices were detonated.

The explosions were spread throughout the city and damaged the local bazaar, the Central Mosque, the deputy governor’s compound, the hospital, and many other locations in central Tarin Kot.

Just six days after the attack the Provincial Reconstruction Team Uruzgan Civil Affairs and the Royal Australian Engineers Managed Works Team made its way through the aftermath assessing the damages.

The PRT civil affairs team visited both the bazaar and Central Mosque. There were approximately 15 shops damaged during the attack in the bazaar as well as three solar lights, said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Scott Shipstad, PRT CA. The shopkeepers had already started to cleanup, forming neat piles of wood, rocks and glass.

Across the street, many windows of the Tarin Kot Central Mosque were also blown out by a vehicle borne IED. “You can see where the vehicle was when it was detonated,” Shipstad said, pointing to a picture of the damaged asphalt resembling shattered glass.

As Shipstad and his team visited the bazaar and mosque, two more units were out assessing the city. Members of the PRT’s Australian Engineers MWT assessed the deputy governor’s compound. Australian Army Cpl. Trent Forbes, surveyor, and Spr. Evan Nicholson, architectural draftsman, took measurements of the building inside and out to create architectural drawings upon return to his office.

Members of the MWT as well as Navy Lt. Cmdr. Carl Carney, PRT engineer, walked down the street to the hospital. “A vehicle IED was detonated adjacent to a wall of the governor's compound, which was directly across the street from the back gate to the Women's section of the TK provincial Hospital 2,” Carney said. “The concussion damage from the blast blew in and fully destroyed the hospital back gate.”

“The overpressure fractured and blew out about 40 percent of the glass windows in the hospital, including most of the women's wing, the blood-bank lab, the mental health ward, and some windows in the mortuary,” he said.

The PRT has a slow but persistent pace when it comes to reconstruction, but Navy Cmdr. Matthew Kosnar, PRT commander, says the important consideration is, “when you move too fast with money … you can inadvertently fuel corruption and cause tribal tensions.”

A contract has already been signed to fix the central mosque, and others are in the works. Budgeting for such projects comes from either the Commander Emergency Response Program funding or the Australian Defense Fund, which usually tackles the larger scale projects, Shipstad said.

“This is a perfect use of Commander Emergency Response Program funds, because it targets quick impact projects where time really matters,” said Kosnar. He added, “even though [the insurgents] can do all that, coordinate a complex attack, two weeks later it doesn’t matter. Everything’s fixed, the government is back at work, people are shopping at the bazaar. We want to show the insurgents they don’t have any lasting effect.”

• Date Taken: 08.03.2011
• Date Posted: 09.05.2011 08:19
• Story ID: 76467
• Location: TARIN KOWT, AF