Afghanistan — Forces Seize Taliban ‘Shadow Governor’ in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan, June 2, 2010 — The new­ly appoint­ed Tal­iban shad­ow gov­er­nor of Bagh­lan province was cap­tured May 31 by an Afghan-inter­na­tion­al force as he pre­pared to leave for Pak­istan.

His pre­de­ces­sor was killed in a coali­tion airstrike the pre­vi­ous day, and this cap­ture marks the third time in as many weeks that the Tal­iban have had to replace named shad­ow gov­er­nors for Bagh­lan province because of coali­tion operations. 

An insur­gent was killed and sev­er­al oth­er sus­pects also were detained by the assault force dur­ing the oper­a­tion in Baghlan‑e Jadid dis­trict after intel­li­gence infor­ma­tion revealed insur­gent activity. 

As the joint force pre­pared to trans­port troops from the com­plet­ed oper­a­tion, it was dis­cov­ered that a helicopter’s trans­mis­sion and engines were irrepara­bly dam­aged and it could not return to its base. Troops left using anoth­er heli­copter after main­te­nance experts inspect­ed the air­craft and decid­ed to destroy it on site. The heli­copter did not receive any ene­my fire. 

In anoth­er oper­a­tion, Afghan Nation­al Army sol­diers of the 207th Corps, sup­port­ed by troops with the NATO Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force, dis­cov­ered a weapons cache in Bala Murghab, Badghis province, May 31 after receiv­ing a tip from civilians. 

The cache con­tained 11 mor­tar rounds, eight heavy artillery rounds, a mine, 100 steel pro­jec­tiles and sev­er­al items suit­able for the pro­duc­tion of impro­vised explo­sive devices. 

Afghanistan nation­al secu­ri­ty forces with ISAF part­ners con­duct­ed an oper­a­tion in the Baghran val­ley May 30 to dis­rupt Tal­iban com­mand, con­trol, and influ­ence in the area, and to cap­ture an insur­gent who has sup­plied Tal­iban fight­ers with weapons and com­po­nents for road­side bombs through­out north­ern Hel­mand province. 

The Afghan and ISAF com­bined force sur­round­ed numer­ous com­pounds sus­pect­ed of being hide­outs for insur­gents in the val­ley. After ensur­ing all res­i­dents exit­ed the com­pounds safe­ly, the com­bined force detained two men. Sev­er­al women and chil­dren were pro­tect­ed in the oper­a­tion, in which no shots were fired and no civil­ians were injured. 

Source:
Com­piled from Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force Joint Com­mand News Releases