than thirty along with causing casualties among the mountain Afghan security forces. This trend continued until 2009 (hitherto German troops had only been involved in a handful of firefights with opposing forces). In mid-2009 though, the number of direct contacts had already exceeded the total of the prior seven years. A similar development struck Faryab province and the surrounding districts: having already taken action to rout the Taliban, the Norwegian forces of PRT Meymaneh saw themselves increasingly threatened by insurgent activities. ISAF commander Stanley McChrystal expressed his concerns about Northern Afghanistan. He described Kunduz, Baghlan and the northwest of the country as places where security was deteriorating in a particularly worrying manner, requiring the concerted actions of all allies. With casualties rising, Berlin agreed to revise its contingent's rules of engagement. The German military immediately began joint operations with Afghan security forces in accordance with ISAF's "Afghan-face" strategy in April 2009, and continued to conduct its own operations to improve security as well as supporting other allies in their operations. Halfway through the year, three major hotspots of anti-government and anti-ISAF activity had been identified: Kunduz's Chardara district with the adjacent road to Baghlan province, Baghlan province itself, and the western Faryab province. Following the Kunduz airstrike against two captured fuel tankers in September 2009 which killed insurgents as well as scores of civilians who had gathered to steal fuel from a Taliban-captured fuel truck, the German government finally reclassified the Afghanistan deployment in February 2010 as an "armed conflict within the parameters of international law", allowing German forces to act without risk of prosecution under German law. While the German contingent had previously relied on lightly armoured and -armed infantry mobility vehicles such as the Dingo and the Fennek armoured reconnaissance vehicle (along with unarmoured utility vehicles), heavy weapons were now brought to the area. While addressing troops in the wake of a deadly attack on April 15, 2010, then Minister of Defence Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg announced his decision to deploy Marder infantry fighting vehicles and Pzh2000 self propelled artillery to Kunduz in order to better protect troops and "max" their "punch". The military would also go on to acquire new weapons and vehicles better suited for combat in the hot and rugged Afghan countryside. Around the same time, US forces were called into Northern Afghanistan to reinforce the German contingent and provide Regional Command North with direly needed