When U.S. troops went to confirm that Ashan had in fact come forward to claim the finder’s fee, they were initially incredulous.
“We asked him, ‘Is this you?’ Mohammad Ashan answered with an incredible amount of enthusiasm, ‘Yes, yes, that’s me! Can I get my award now?’” recalled SPC Matthew Baker.
A biometric scan confirmed that the man in Afghan custody was the insurgent they had been looking for.
“This guy is the Taliban equivalent of the ‘Home Alone” burglars,” one U.S. official said.
Now this is funny. This guy actually turned himself in so he could collect the bounty offered on his ‘Wanted’ poster. lol The poster is below.
On the other hand, if Taliban folks are willing to do this, both intentionally or by mistake, then we should be doing more of this kind of thing. How about the classic sting operation where you put the word out that a certain wanted individual needs to pick up their ‘free goat’ at a designated location–complete with waiting police.
Or just increase the bounty and put a message on the posters that says they can turn themselves in to collect that bounty. Then capture them and not pay them a cent. If they want to believe they will get paid the bounty by turning themselves in, then let them believe it. War is deception as Sun Tzu would say.
Finally, the other angle on this is that these guys might have it in their mind that the west is going to leave anyways and the Taliban will take over the country soon. So the Taliban might think in terms of ‘go to prison now and get paid’, and get released in the near future when the Taliban win.
Maybe they do not think a prison can hold them, just because prisons seem to have a hard time keeping prisoners in that part of the world. lol. Who knows, but lets see if we can swindle some more fools into giving up. –Matt
Taliban commander turns self in… for reward on ‘Wanted’ poster
By Kevin Sieff
Sometimes, capturing a Taliban commander requires vast resources and complex operations. Last week in eastern Afghanistan, it required neither.
Mohammad Ashan, a mid-level Taliban commander in Paktika province, strolled toward a police checkpoint in the district of Sar Howza with a wanted poster bearing his own face. He demanded the finder’s fee referenced on the poster: $100.
Afghan officials, perplexed by the man’s misguided motives, arrested him on the spot. Ashan is suspected of plotting at least two attacks on Afghan security forces. His misdeeds prompted officials to plaster the district with hundreds of so-called “Be on the Lookout” posters emblazoned with his name and likeness.
When U.S. troops went to confirm that Ashan had in fact come forward to claim the finder’s fee, they were initially incredulous.
“We asked him, ‘Is this you?’ Mohammad Ashan answered with an incredible amount of enthusiasm, ‘Yes, yes, that’s me! Can I get my award now?’” recalled SPC Matthew Baker.
A biometric scan confirmed that the man in Afghan custody was the insurgent they had been looking for.
“This guy is the Taliban equivalent of the ‘Home Alone” burglars,” one U.S. official said.
Wanted posters are often distributed by NATO forces, but rarely have such a direct impact on the apprehension of an insurgent. In restive Paktika province, civilians are typically afraid to pass on intelligence that might lead to an arrest. And insurgents tend to shy away from the urban centers where they’re being hunted, particularly while carrying evidence of their own transgressions.
Officials have guessed at what the unusual details of Ashan’s arrest might tell us about the state of the insurgency — its desperation, its lack of resources, its defiance of law and order.
But, for now, the consensus has landed on the singularity of Ashan’s act, and the intellectual calculus that led to it.
Story here.