Task force Lafayette prise d'armes Strasbourg 31 janvier 2013 01

The Brigade La Fayette, also named Task Force La Fayette, was a joint unit of the

French forces in Afghanistan French forces in Afghanistan were involved in the War in Afghanistan from late 2001, until fully withdrawing by 2014. They operated within two distinct frameworks: * the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), carried out by NATO on a Unit ...

. It was officially created on 1 November 2009, along with a complete reorganisation of the French military deployment in Afghanistan. It comprised most of the French Army units involved in the

ISAF ' ps, کمک او همکاري ' , allies = Afghanistan , opponents = Taliban Al-Qaeda , commander1 = , commander1_label = Commander , commander2 = , commander2_label = , commander3 = , command ...

. The unit was named in honour of Gilbert du Motier de La Fayette. Its headquarters is at Nijrab outpost, near

Nijrab Nijrāb (Pashto/Persian: نجراب) is a city with five valleys in Kapisa Province, Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country loca ...

, in the

Kapisa Province Kapisa (Pashto/Dari: ) is the smallest of Afghanistan's thirty-four provinces and is located in the north-east of the country. It has an estimated population of 496,840 people and an area of , making it the most densely populated province apar ...

. It was headed by general Jean-Pierre Palasset. The mission ended on 25 November 2012.

Organisation

The Brigade La Fayette was responsible for the Surobi district and for the

. It operated under the US 1st Cavalry Division, which headed

Regional Command East In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

. The Brigade comprised two Joint Tactical Groups, each composed of three infantry companies and their support units: * the

groupement tactique interarmes de Kapisa The ''Groupement tactique interarmes de Kapisa'' (GTIA Kapisa, "joint tactical group of Kapisa"), also called Task Force Korrigan, was a battalion-sized unit of the French Army, based in Kapisa Province, in Afghanistan. It operated in the frame ...

* the

groupement tactique interarmes de Surobi The ''Groupement tactique interarmes de Surobi'' (GTIA Surobi, "joint tactical group of Surobi"), also called Task Force Dragon, is a battalion-sized unit of the French Army, based in Surobi District, in Afghanistan. It operates in the framework o ...

, composed of units formerly known as "BatFra" and based in Kabul. The Brigade comprised over 2500 personnel, amounting to 75% of the French forces in Afghanistan. Most were based in outpost in Nijrab and Tagab, in

; in Tora in the Surobi district; and at Kabul airport. It also utilised combat outposts in Belda and in Rocco, jointly with the Afghan Army. French Operational Mentoring Liaison Teams formerly operating in Wardak and Logar exchanged their duties with

Embedded Training Team Embedded Training Teams or ETT is the term used by the US military since 2003 to describe conventional forces used to train and mentor Afghan forces (ANA and ANP primarily). They were formed in 2003 under Task Force Phoenix. Although ETT refers t ...

s that operated in the territory cared for by the Brigade. The Brigade was especially linked to the 3rd Brigade of the 201st Corps (Afghanistan) of the Afghan National Army, deployed in Kapisa and Surobi. Most of the Gendarmes tasked with the training of Afghan police were also integrated in the Brigade.

References

Brigades of France {{France-mil-unit-stub

Organisation

See also

References