ABC NEWS has this to say:
“The force is made up of the best commandos from some of the military’s elite units: Delta Force, Army Rangers and Navy Seals, plus CIA operatives and British Special Forces, and are credited with hunting down and ordering the air strike that killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi on Wednesday. “
Global Security tells us how they are organized:
“According to an April 28, 2006 Army Times article, TF 145 is headquartered at Balad Air Base and is “divided into four subordinate task forces in Iraq :
- Task Force West, organized around a SEAL Team 6 squadron with Rangers in support.
- Task Force Central, organized around a Delta squadron with Rangers in support.
- Task Force North, organized around a Ranger battalion combined with a small Delta element.
- Task Force Black, organized around a British Special Air Service “saber squadron,” with British paratroopers from the Special Forces Support Group in support.”
Cool Blue tells us how they operate:
“TF 145’s method of operating is simple: target a safe house, capture individuals, exploit whatever is found for intelligence and use that to drive a new mission immediately. Whenever possible, the operators try to avoid killing their targets.
“It’s a lot better to capture them,” the source said, because in a manhunt, the most valuable intelligence comes from humans, not technology.”
It was Task Force 145 that took out Zarqawi. Although no one operates alone, TF 145 operates very independently and is succesful in killing terrorists. We need them.
0 responses so far ↓
Cari // September 29, 2006 at 3:16 pm
Why is it okay to kill Zarqawi, when it was not okay to kill Saddam? We don’t assassinate heads of state, just heads of terrorist organizations? I’m all for the utilitarian viewpoint–we’re all better off now–but the hypocrisy of wanting court justice for some and death for others is startling.
kindlingman // September 29, 2006 at 8:03 pm
Evil people should be removed. Although I favor capture and trial, I believe that people can be considered threats when they are leaders of organizations that have demonstrated and continue to threaten the physical safety of the public at large. I see nothing wrong with judicial review and capture warrants for these type of people. I see no reason why a review process cannot be established that presents the evidence for such a capture warrant. The key part would be the demonstrated harm to the public at large and the threat to perform more.