Denmark's engagement in Helmand Province

The overall objective of the Danish engagement in Helmand is to contribute to stable and sustainable development through a comprehensive and fully integrated civil and military approach.

The Danish engagement will address radicalisation and aims at ensuring the active support from the local population to the government. The Danish assistance is implemented in close cooperation with the Afghan government, the international society and our allies in Helmand, first and foremost UK, in accordance with the agreed structure of the international presence in the Helmand province.

The Danish plan contains strategic objectives for the longer term as well as benchmarks for 2008. The planning and implementation of concrete activities will take place locally and take the evolving situation on the ground into account. The plan will be monitored on an on-going basis and will be updated annually in light of developments in the province. The one-year time horizon ensures the possibility for frequent adjustments in a situation with significant uncertainty and instability. In 2008 Denmark has prepared a strategy for the entire Danish engagement in Afghanistan for the period 2008-12 to replace the existing agreement, which comes to an end.

The plan for Helmand contains three focus areas: Security and stabilization, education and counter narcotics. The Danish security and stabilisation engagement, which is implemented through ISAF – should continuously contribute to assist the Government of Afghanistan in extending its authority across the Helmand province. Increased stability will pave the way for quick and visible reconstruction projects – and for long-term development.

Denmark and Afghanistan have jointly agreed that Denmark’s main focus should be on the educational sector, as it is at the national level. As such Denmark aims at ensuring synergy between national and local efforts making it possible for the Afghan government to become far more visible to the population in Helmand with regard to education.

Fighting the opium economy in Helmand is significant to the stabilization of the province and the possibilities for creating sustainable development effects. The Danish engagement in Helmand will therefore contribute actively to fighting the opium economy.

For the Danish Embassy website click here

Danish troops close off the battle zone for Brit allies

Danish reconnaissance troops from the island of Bornholm checks a tunnel running under a canal. Hundreds of locals and Talibs used this tunnel every day, on foot or motorcycle, to get in and out of the Green Zone.

Danish and British commanders met frequently during Operation Ring of Steel, coordinating the course of the fight. "The British are polite people, but also we could feel the real respect for us rise as they gradually saw what our units are capable of achieving," says Danish officer


An important phase in Operation Ring of Steel was recently concluded. Platoons of Danish 2 Light Recce Squadron have been in numerous firefights with the Taliban during the past weeks. The battles have been hard fought and there have been casualties on both sides of the front. But together with British and other allies they have stood their ground, the soldiers from Bornholm, an island in the Baltic Ocean and the most eastern part of Denmark. The islanders took part in laying an iron circle around an isolated pocket of Talibs. The enemy has been clearly aggravated and annoyed with this.

A base was quickly established by the Recce Squadron. From here the Danish soldiers regularly lashed out at the Taliban.



Jakob Bjerborg, the Officer in Command of the Squadron, explains:
- We pressured the enemy to shift some of his focus to us. Because of that he had to thin out the forces facing the Brits. At the same time we disrupted his supply routes, making him run low on food, water and ammunition.
The OC points out that the enemy never knew when and where the Recce Squadron would strike.

For the full report click here

Danish soldier killed in Helmand

A Danish soldier has been killed in Afghanistan and another injured after their patrol came under fire from insurgents.

The two troops were immediately evacuated by helicopter, but one was declared dead at hospital.
Danish army officials say the attack took place in the southern province of Helmand – the scene of some of Afghanistan’s most deadly violence.

Denmark currently has around 700 troops in the country most of whom serve under British command.

In Afghanistan since 2001, Denmark has proportionally suffered the heaviest losses compared to other allies in the NATO led mission.

Taliban bomb making team destroyed as they planted an IED

ISAF troops in Helmand have destroyed a bomb-making team as they attempted to plant an IED on a main road to the east of the area held by British troops following Operation Panther’s Claw.

In the early hours of this morning American Apache helicopters working for the Danish Battlegroup were patrolling close to Highway one, which runs out of Gereskh to the north of Babiji when they spotted three insurgents in the process of digging a device into the ground. The Apaches opened fire killing two of the insurgents and preventing them from fully laying the death trap.

Specialist British counter-IED teams were tasked to accompany the American-mentored Afghan National Army Highway patrol as they immediately entered the area on foot to make the device safe and to sweep across the surrounding area looking for signs of enemy activity.

One of the insurgents, who is thought to have survived the attack, had run to a nearby mud-walled compound. As British, Afghan and US Forces followed in hot pursuit, they discovered a cache of IED making-equipment inside a warren of rooms in the compound.

Amongst the haul were six pre-prepared IEDs, three 20-litre cans containing homemade explosives, six mortar rounds packed and prepared to be used as IEDs, hand grenades and an AK47.

The strike is a significant success along a highway which intersects the Babaji Road, a key route through the territory recently captured and held by British troops during Operation Panther’s Claw. Since April this year, Highway One has been the scene of 49 IED finds; a haul that could have resulted in hundreds of deaths and injuries.

Lieutenant Colonel Mark Wenham, Spokesman for Task Force Helmand, said: “Highway One is a main arterial route through Helmand that is used extensively by the local population and security forces alike. The deadly devices that the insurgents intended to plant would almost certainly have killed or maimed innocent civilians or members of coalition forces.

“This morning’s operation was a truly multi-national effort and illustrates how NATO nations are working together at the tactical level, alongside the increasingly capable Afghan Forces, to provide security and ultimately stability for the local population.”