Text Fwd: Korea’s Afghan base under rocket attack

Korea Times
Korea’s Afghan base under rocket attack
02-09-2011 20:10


By Kang Hyun-kyung

Korea’s provincial reconstruction team (PRT) base in Charikar, Afghanistan, came under rocket attack early Wednesday (KST) but no casualties were reported, said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

A foreign ministry official told reporters on condition of anonymity that five rocket-propelled grenades (RPG) were fired at the base _ two were found outside, while the remaining three were inside.

So far no armed forces or individuals have claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Upon a request from the Korean authorities shortly after the incident, local police arrived on the scene to investigate the case. The government plans to work together with the local police to investigate the rocket attack.

The PRT base in Charikar, the capital city of the northern Afghan province of Parwan, is a brand-new facility in which a total of 369 South Koreans, including 277 troops from the Ashena unit, are stationed.

Previously, they were based in another PRT site in Bagram and relocated to the new one in Charikar this January after construction was completed.

Korea was scheduled to hold an opening ceremony for the newly-built base on February 14. But the foreign ministry official said this was subject to change. Officials from the foreign ministry plan to discuss the matter with their counterparts from related ministries.

The rocket attack coincided with Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin’s visit to the PRT site. Kim is on a five-day trip to Afghanistan and the United Arab Emirates to show support for Korean troops stationed there.

Kim arrived in Afghanistan, Monday, and inspected the condition of the troops there protecting the base and civilian aid workers.

Kim separately met Gen. David Petraeus, the top commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan and his Afghan counterpart Abdul Rahim Wardak.

Wardak said the rocket attack came hours after Kim’s visit to the base. He remained cautious on whether the attack targeted the defense minister, pointing to the fact that Kim’s schedule was not made public.

This is the third attack on Korean PRT, following ones last June and this January, respectively. In June, two rockets were fired at site in Charikar, which was then under construction. No workers were harmed in the attack.

In the second attack, rockets were found approximately 400-meter outside the site. Due to the location, the foreign ministry said it was not clear whether the attack targeted the PRT or not.

The team was dispatched to help reconstruct the war-torn country through medical, health and vocational training and rural development assistance. The Ashena unit is tasked with guarding Korean reconstruction workers and 40 police officers.



See also Yonhap News

Korea MND News: Korea completes PRT's Charika base in Afghanistan

Korea MND
recent news 708
Korea completes PRT's Charika base in Afghanistan
Jan. 25, 2011

Korea has completed construction of a base in Afghanistan for its provincial reconstruction team workers and troops organized to protect them, said Joint Chiefs of Staff on Jan. 24.

The completion will allow some 320 Korean troops of "Ashena unit," which had been stationed at U.S. air base in Bagram since June last year, to move to the base in the city of Charika in the northern province of Parwan, according to JCS.
Ashena means friend or colleague in Afghanistan.

The base in Charika, which is 60 kilometers north of Afghan's capital Kabul, is equipped with surveillance tools such as high-powered closed circuit televisions and thermal observation device. It has also strengthened its security by installing Hesco barriers and barbed-wire fence.

Korean provincial reconstruction team members will be in service by dividing them to Charika and Bagram bases. Only aviation unit is going to be based in Bagram and carry out its mission by flying between two bases.

In addition, a police training center and a hospital are planned to be constructed under the supervision of Korea International Cooperation Agency.

Text Fwd: Aerial surveillance over Korean camp in Afghanistan due

Korea Times
07-07-2010 21:09
Aerial surveillance over Korean camp in Afghanistan due
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff reporter

Korean and U.S. troops in Afghanistan will conduct aerial surveillance over the construction site of a Korean provincial reconstruction team (PRT) there, to detect possible attacks by local insurgents, the Joint Chiefs of Staff here said Wednesday.

The announcement comes a week after a hostile force fired rockets at the Korean PRT camp near Charikar.

The construction site was hit last week by two rockets presumably fired by an insurgent group. There were no casualties or any significant damage to Korean facilities under construction.

"In cooperation with the U.S. military, aerial surveillance operations will be held one or two times every day near the PRT construction site to thwart attacks by a hostile force," Col. Lee Boong-wu, spokesman for the JCS, told reporters.

Lee said the Korean and U.S. militaries have been actively exchanging intelligence on insurgent moves in Afghanistan since the base was hit by rockets.

"Surveillance equipment, including thermal observation devices, has been installed around the site," the spokesman said.

Construction of the Korean PRT base is scheduled to be completed by August or September, and other facilities will be set up by December, he added.

Seoul officials believe last week's rocket attack was a warning from an insurgent group a day before the main contingent of the South Korean troops arrived Thursday at the U.S. air base in Bagram.
gallantjung@koreatimes.co.kr

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* Related blog
http://nobasestorieskorea.blogspot.com/2010/07/text-fwd-skorean-prt-site-in.html
Friday, July 2, 2010
Text Fwd: S.Korean PRT site in Afghanistan comes under attack

Text Fwd: S.Korean PRT site in Afghanistan comes under attack

* Image source: University Students, Nanum Munhwa (* meaning 'Sharing Culture')

'Today (July 1, 2010), South Korean soldiers are dispatched to Afghanistan
Withdraw the re-deployment to Afghanistan that predicts the national tragedy!'

On June 30, there was the press interview against the Lee Myung Bak government’s forceful drive for the dispatch to Afghanistan, by the five Parties such as the Democratic Party, Democratic Labor Party, New Progressive Party, Creative Korea Party, Citizens’ Participation Party and the Civilian Alliance Against the Redeployment of Troops to Afghanistan, composed of 69 organizations. Currently only Korean press release on it is available. See it HERE.
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* Image source: same as the link: German Bundeswehr army soldiers of the ISAF Quick Reaction Force (QRF) open fire during a night drill in the Marmal mountains near Masar-i-Sharif, north of Kabul, Sept. 16, 2008.(REUTERS photo)'

Hankyoreh
S.Korean PRT site in Afghanistan comes under attack
:Analysts say the attack seems to be a warning message and arrived one day before S.Korea’s PRT was scheduled to launch their mission
Posted on : Jul.2,2010 12:35 KST

Unidentified attackers shot rockets at the construction site of the base of South Korea’s provincial reconstruction team (PRT) in Afghanistan, the Foreign Ministry announced Thursday. The ministry also confirmed that there were no casualties.

Wednesday night’s attack arrived a day before South Korea’s provincial reconstruction team (PRT) was to launch its mission to rebuild the war-torn nation, sounding an alarm bell for the security of the civilian aid workers in the nation where two South Korean religious activists were killed by Al-Qaeda in 2007. Analysts say the attack seemed to be a warning message to South Korea about their decision to redeploy troops to Afghanistan.

Two rockets were fired toward the construction site in Charikar, the capital of the northern Afghan province of Parwan, around 10:10 p.m. Security guards protecting the base fired back two rockets, ministry officials said, a revision of an earlier account that assailants fired a total of four rockets, with one of them landing on the base.

Officials said that one of the two rockets fired by attackers landed about 200-300 meters away from the base, but it was unclear whether the other landed on the base. Fifty-eight South Korean construction workers and some 60 local security guards were at the site at that time, but no casualties or property damage was reported, officials said. Construction of the base is now about 30 percent complete, they said.

The party responsible for launching the attack remains unknown. Foreign Ministery spokesman Kim Young-sun said the Taliban or insurgents in that region may have carried out the attack.

South Korea’s PRT planned to officially launch its mission Thursday with 49 civilian workers and eight troops to protect them. It will be expanded in stages later this year to about 100 reconstruction workers and 40 troops.

The South Korean team plans to help strengthen the Parwan provincial government’s administrative capabilities and offer medical services in addition to vocational and police training as part of efforts to get help the nation regain the ability to stand on its own.

A South Korean Army contingent will protect the civilian workers. An advanced team of about 90 members of the PRT has already been stationed there since mid-June. About 240 more PRT workers were scheduled to head to Afghanistan early this month and in late August.

South Korea had stationed troops in Afghanistan for five years before withdrawing them in late 2007. The pullout, though previously planned, came after the Taliban demanded their withdrawal during a hostage crisis in which insurgents killed two South Korean missionaries.

Source: The Hankyoreh and Yonhap News Agency

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* Related article (* Text informed by Rick Rozoff on July 3, 2010)

Joongang Daily

Attacks Greet 140 South Korean Troops Deployed To Afghan Air Base

July 3, 2010

Text Fwd: S. Korea chooses location of PRT base in Afghanistan: source

* Image source: US Army War College (through Google)

* Image source: Springhar.org (through Google)

Yonhap News
2010/01/10 16:12 KST
S. Korea chooses location of PRT base in Afghanistan: source


SEOUL, Jan. 10 (Yonhap) -- South Korea has selected Charikar, the capital of the Afghan province of Parwan, as the location to station its independent Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) and security troops, a government source said Sunday.

South Korea plans to send some 350 troops to Afghanistan this year to protect South Korean civilian workers there. It currently has dozens of workers in Afghanistan as part of an international PRT operation, and plans to increase the number to about 120.

"The Afghan government has recently proposed a state-owned lot on the northern outskirts of Charikar as the site of a South Korean PRT," the government source said, requesting anonymity. "The South Korean government has accepted the offer following an initial inspection by Seoul officials."

"The proposed site has a mountain in the rear and a waterway and a road in the front. The final decision will be made after a secondary inspection by South Korean military officials."

The source said the proposed PRT site, which covers about 400,000 square meters, is located about 2.5 kilometers north of Charikar. Parwan is directly north of Kabul.