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Tarīnkōṭ ( prs, ترين کوت), also spelled as Tarin Kowt, is the capital of
Uruzgan Province Uruzgan (Dari), also spelled as Urozgan or Oruzgan, is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan. Uruzgan is located in the center of the country. The population is 436,079, and the province is mostly a tribal society. Tarinkot serves as th ...
in southern
Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
in the
Tarinkot District Tarinkot District, also spelled as Tarin Kowt, is a district of Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan. The capital of the district and the province is the town called Tarinkot. In Tarinkot district, two Pashtun tribal confederations are represented, t ...
. Tarinkot city has a population of 71,604 (2015), with some 200 small shops in the city's
bazaar A bazaar () or souk (; also transliterated as souq) is a marketplace consisting of multiple small Market stall, stalls or shops, especially in the Middle East, the Balkans, North Africa and India. However, temporary open markets elsewhere, suc ...
. In Tarinkot district, two major Pashtun tribal confederations are represented,
Tareen The Tareen (or Tarin) ( ps, ترین) is a Pashtun tribe inhabiting southern Afghanistan, and western region of Pakistan.Caroe O. ''The Pathans 550 B.C.- A.D. 1957'' Oxford University Press . Page 521.Muhammad Hyat Khan, "Hayat i Afghan" (Orig. i ...
tribes:
Popolzai Popalzai or Popalzay ( ps, پوپلزی), also known as Popal, are Durrani (formerly called Abdali or Bor Tareen) Pashtuns of Afghanistan. The Popalzai are part of the Zirak confederation of Pashtun tribes. The origin of the Abdali forefathers ...
,
Barakzai Bārakzai ( ps, بارکزی, ''Bārakzay;'' plur. ps, بارکزي, ''Bārakzī'') is the name of a Pashtun tribe from present-day, Kandahar, Afghanistan. '"Barakzai" is a common name among the Pashtuns and it means "son of Barak" in Pashto. A ...
,
Nurzai Nurzai also spelled as ''Noorzai'' ( ps, نورزئی) (meaning ''son of the light'') is the name of a Pashtun tribe, part of the Panjpai section of Durrani Tareen Pashtuns. The word "''nūr''" derives from the Arabic word for ''the light''. Whi ...
,
Achakzai The Achakzai or Achekzai ( ps, اڅکزی; fa, اچکزایی) is a Pashtun tribe that resides on both sides of the Durand Line, centered on Killa Abdullah District in Pakistan with some clans as far away as Afghanistan's Kandahar Province. ...
; and the
Ghilzai The Ghiljī ( ps, غلجي, ; fa, خیلجی, Xelji) also spelled Khilji, Khalji, or Ghilzai or Ghilzay (), are one of the largest Pashtun tribes. Their traditional homeland is Ghazni and Qalati Ghilji in Afghanistan but they have also settle ...
tribes:
Tokhi ''Tokhi'' (Pashto: توخی) is a Ghilji Pashtun tribe found throughout southern, eastern, southeastern and northeastern Afghanistan. Historically they have mostly lived in what is now Zabul Province, Helmand and Kandahar in Afghanistan. Notables ...
,
Hotak The Hotak ( ps, هوتک) or Hotaki () is a tribe of the Ghilji confederacy of the Pashtun people. The Hotak started centuries ago as a political family. The first king to take power in Kandahar, Afghanistan, was Mirwais Hotak (1673–1715). Af ...
. There are no medium or large-scale economic enterprises in the city. The provincial governor, currently
Asadullah Hamdam Assadullah Hamdam is an Afghan politician who was appointed as List of governors of Oruzgan, Governor of Oruzgan Province by President of Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai in September 2007, to replace Governor Maulavi Abdul Hakim Munib who had ...
, lives and works in a compound adjacent to the bazaar. Tarinkot is a Provincial Centre in south central Afghanistan. The majority of land is classified as non built-up (69%) of which agriculture is 67%. Residential land accounts for 47% of built-up land. The airport is located within the municipal boundaries, accounting the second largest built-up land use (24%). On 13 August 2021, Tarinkot was captured by
Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...
fighters as part of the wider
2021 Taliban offensive A military offensive by the Taliban insurgent group and other allied militants led to the fall of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan based in Kabul and marked the end of the nearly 20-year-old War in Afghanistan, that had begun following the ...
.


History

Historically, this locale remained a seat of some of the Tarin (or
Tareen The Tareen (or Tarin) ( ps, ترین) is a Pashtun tribe inhabiting southern Afghanistan, and western region of Pakistan.Caroe O. ''The Pathans 550 B.C.- A.D. 1957'' Oxford University Press . Page 521.Muhammad Hyat Khan, "Hayat i Afghan" (Orig. i ...
)
Pashtun Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically re ...
tribal
sardar Sardar, also spelled as Sardaar/Sirdar ( fa, سردار, , 'commander', literally 'headmaster'), is a title of royalty and nobility that was originally used to denote princes, noblemen, chiefs, kings and other aristocrats. It has also been u ...
s, as early as the 12th-13th centuries AD and some of them later migrated to the
Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...
during or after the Mughal-Safavid War (1622-23).


Recent war

This town in southern Afghanistan was of significant strategic value to the Taliban in 2001. On November 16, the citizens here rose up against their Taliban governor, which marked the first organized Pashtun resistance against the Taliban.
Hamid Karzai Hamid Karzai (; Pashto/ fa, حامد کرزی, , ; born 24 December 1957) is an Afghan statesman who served as the fourth president of Afghanistan from July 2002 to September 2014, including as the first elected president of the Islamic Repub ...
, then an obscure statesman, was in the region at the time trying to build an insurgency/army while accompanied by an 11-man U.S. Special Forces team, known as
Operational Detachment Alpha 574 Operational Detachment Alpha 574 is a part of the United States Army's Third Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group. At the beginning of Operation Enduring Freedom it operated in Afghanistan to help defeat the Taliban and create conditions for the ...
. The Taliban launched a counterattack, confronting Karzai and his militia who dug in to defend the town. With the help of U.S. air power, the U.S. and militia force drove the Taliban back from Tarinkot. The defeat of the Taliban at Tarinkot was an important victory for Karzai, who used the victory to recruit more men to his fledgling guerrilla band. His force would grow in size to a peak of around 800 men. On November 30, they left Tarinkot and began advancing on
Kandahar Kandahar (; Kandahār, , Qandahār) is a List of cities in Afghanistan, city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on the Arghandab River, at an elevation of . It is Afghanistan's second largest city after Kabul, with a population ...
. An American base called FOB Ripley, named after U.S. Marine John Ripley was built in Tarinkot in 2004. It was established by a Joint Task Force made up mainly of the
22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit The 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (22nd MEU) is one of seven such units currently in existence in the United States Marine Corps. It is a Marine Air Ground Task Force with a strength of about 2,200 personnel. They are currently based out of M ...
(Special Operations Capable) (22ndMEU SOC), 2-5 Infantry (bobcats)/3rd BDE/ 25th Infantry Division, US Army Civil Affairs, and the Florida and Iowa National Guard Task Force 168 in May 2004. In autumn 2001, the region was the last stronghold of
Taliban regime The government of Afghanistan, officially called the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is the central government of Afghanistan, a unitary state. Under the leadership of the Taliban, the government is a theocracy and an emirate with political powe ...
. Subsequently, other foreign military forces have operated at the base outside Tarinkot. After the 22nd MEU SOC led
Operation Mountain Storm Operation Mountain Storm ( mk, Операција Планинска бура) was a military operation carried out on November 7 2007 by special police forces of the Republic of Macedonia against an armed ethnic Albanian group in the Šar Mount ...
, most of the Taliban forces moved to the mountainous region between Afghanistan and Pakistan. As NATO's ISAF mission assumed responsibility for security in Afghanistan's south, Dutch NATO troops built Kamp Holland (now
Multi National Base Tarin Kot Multi National Base Tarin Kot is a former International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) installation, used after the Netherlands Armed Forces' departure by the Afghan National Army. The base was located on the outskirts of Tarinkot, the capital ...
) in August 2006. Beginning in March 2007, the
United States Army Corps of Engineers , colors = , anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day) , battles = , battles_label = Wars , website = , commander1 = ...
(USACE) began construction of a road from Tarinkot westward to
Deh Rahwod Deh Rawood is a district in Uruzgan Province, southern Afghanistan, and the name of the town that serves as district seat. Deh Rawood lies along the Helmand River. The tribes in the district are Pashtun, dominated by the Noorzai and Populzai sub- ...
and then to Shahidi Hassas District, in the western areas of Oruzgan province. At the same time, the USACE also started paving and bridge construction to improve the road to Kandahar. On 4 July 2010, U.S. soldiers from 1st Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment assumed responsibility over operations in Tarinkot and
Deh Rahwod Deh Rawood is a district in Uruzgan Province, southern Afghanistan, and the name of the town that serves as district seat. Deh Rawood lies along the Helmand River. The tribes in the district are Pashtun, dominated by the Noorzai and Populzai sub- ...
in the wake of the Dutch withdrawal from Oruzgan. On 27 July 2011, a Pakistani suicide terrorist from the
Waziristan Waziristan (Pashto and ur, , "land of the Wazir") is a mountainous region covering the former FATA agencies of North Waziristan and South Waziristan which are now districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Waziristan covers some . ...
region of Pakistan was captured by the
Afghan National Army Afghan may refer to: *Something of or related to Afghanistan, a country in Southern-Central Asia * Afghans, people or citizens of Afghanistan, typically of any ethnicity **Afghan (ethnonym), the historic term applied strictly to people of the Pas ...
and
ISAF ' ps, کمک او همکاري ' , allies = Afghanistan , opponents = Taliban Al-Qaeda , commander1 = , commander1_label = Commander , commander2 = , commander2_label = , commander3 = , command ...
forces during a raid on the house of Mullah Qasim in the
Sur Marghab Sur or SUR or El Sur (Spanish "the South") may refer to: Geography * Sur or Shur (Bible), the wilderness of Sur/Shur from the Book of Exodus * Sur (river), a river of Bavaria, Germany * Súr, a village in Hungary * Sur, a district of the city of D ...
area near Tirinkot. The would-be bomber named Saifullah was interviewed by
Pajhwok Afghan News , logo = , image = , image_size = , type = Independent news agency , headquarters = Kabul, Afghanistan , language = English, Dari, Pashto , founded = 2003 , founder = Danish Karokhel , o ...
reporter
Ahmad Omaid Khpalwak Ahmad Omaid Khpalwak, also spelled as Ahmed Omed Khpulwak, (ca. 1987 – 28 July 2011) was an Afghan journalist who worked for the Pajhwok Afghan News and as a freelance stringer for the BBC since 2008. After an investigation into his death, ...
. In the interview Saifullah said he and 14 other terrorists from Pakistan spent at least two months wandering around the city to select a proper time and place for an attack. "Many times we encountered foreigners, but Mullah Qasim would escape after seeing foreigners and finally we were arrested without carrying out any attack," he said. The next day, at around 12 pm, 28 July, three suicide attackers blew up vehicles packed with explosives at the gates of government compounds while other suicide bombers equipped with heavy weapons entered the buildings and began killing everyone inside. After the shooting ended at least 19 people were killed and 37 others wounded. The dead included Pajhwok reporter Khpalwak, 10 children, 2 women and 1 member of the
Afghan National Police The Afghan National Police (ANP; ps, د افغانستان ملي پولیس; prs, پلیس ملی افغانستان), is the national police force of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, serving as a single law enforcement agency all across ...
. Khpalwak was shot 20 times in different parts of his body. By 29 July the number of dead were raised to 21.
Major General Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...
Angus Campbell, commander of Australian troops deployed to the region, said "Hard-line elements of the insurgency continue to pursue their campaign through violence and attempted targeted killings. Yesterday they paid a heavy price for their ambitions with all insurgents killed while failing to achieve their mission."
Afghan National Army Afghan may refer to: *Something of or related to Afghanistan, a country in Southern-Central Asia * Afghans, people or citizens of Afghanistan, typically of any ethnicity **Afghan (ethnonym), the historic term applied strictly to people of the Pas ...
spokesman Hekmatullah Kuchi said "There were two blasts at the deputy governor's office. One was detonated by a suicide bomber and the other was caused by an ANA (
Afghan army The Army of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (), also referred to as the Islamic Emirate Army and the Afghan Army, is the land force branch of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. The roots of an army in Afghanistan can be t ...
) soldier shooting another suicide attacker." On March 1, 2011, U.S. soldiers from 4th Battalion, 70th Armor Regiment assumed responsibility of Tarinkot and Deh Rawod. On November 23, 2011, U.S. soldiers from the 1st Reconnaissance, Surveillance and Target Acquisition Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment
14th Cavalry Regiment (United States) The 14th Cavalry Regiment is a cavalry regiment of the United States Army. It has two squadrons that provide reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition for Stryker brigade combat teams. Constituted in 1901, it has served in conflicts ...
, 14th Cavalry Regiment
assumed responsibility over operations in Tarinkot.


Transportation

As of May 2014
Tarinkot Airport , nativename-r = , image = C-17 Globemaster III 6.jpg , caption = An American C-17 Globemaster III off-loading equipment before the airport's runway was concreted (June 20, 2009) , IATA = TII , ICAO = OATN , type ...
had regularly scheduled direct passenger service to
Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...
.


Geography

Tarinkot is somewhat isolated: its only airstrip is on the military base of the NATO-led ISAF
Provincial Reconstruction Team A Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) was a unit introduced by the United States government, consisting of military officers, diplomats, and reconstruction subject matter experts, working to support reconstruction efforts in unstable states. PRT ...
on the outskirts of the town. Tarinkot's only ground access to the outside is a road to the regional center of
Kandahar Kandahar (; Kandahār, , Qandahār) is a List of cities in Afghanistan, city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on the Arghandab River, at an elevation of . It is Afghanistan's second largest city after Kabul, with a population ...
to the south, which can be subject to Taliban attacks sometimes and washouts.


Climate

Tarinkot has a
cold semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi-ar ...
(
Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...
''BSk'') with hot summers and cool to cold winters. Precipitation is low, and mostly falls from December to March.


See also

*
List of cities in Afghanistan The only city in Afghanistan with over 1 million people is its capital, Kabul. The rest are smaller cities and towns. According to the National Statistic and Information Authority of Afghanistan (NSIA), an estimated total number of people li ...
*
Orūzgān Province Uruzgan (Dari), also spelled as Urozgan or Oruzgan, is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan. Uruzgan is located in the center of the country. The population is 436,079, and the province is mostly a tribal society. Tarinkot serves as th ...


References


External links

* (http://www.onlythingworthdyingfor.com)
Australian Reconstruction Task Force 3

FOB Martello
Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainability The Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainability is a public policy think tank founded in 1992. The Institute convenes scholars and practitioners who conduct research to address interconnected global problems such as threats of nuclear w ...
at
RMIT University RMIT University, officially the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology,, section 4(b) is a public research university in Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city ...
.
FOB Martello Construction
June, 2006, Canadian Army news. {{Authority control Populated places in Urozgan Province Urozgan Province Provincial capitals in Afghanistan