Afghanistan — Insurgent Attack Fails at ISAF Base

WASHINGTON, Aug. 20, 2010 — Insur­gents launched an unsuc­cess­ful attack on Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Forces at For­ward Oper­at­ing Base Bostick, locat­ed in the Nari dis­trict of east­ern Afghanistan’s Kunar province today, Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force Joint Com­mand offi­cials report­ed.

The insur­gents attacked with indi­rect and small-arms fire that was quick­ly sup­pressed when ISAF sol­diers returned fire, offi­cials said. 

Two Afghan civil­ians out­side the base were injured and were treat­ed and released by ISAF sol­diers. No coali­tion ser­vice­mem­bers were injured, and no per­ma­nent dam­age was incurred dur­ing the attack. 

Also today, Afghan and coali­tion forces con­duct­ed a com­bined oper­a­tion result­ing in the deten­tion of more than 10 peo­ple with sus­pect­ed insur­gent links in Hel­mand province’s San­gin dis­trict. The tar­get of the oper­a­tion was a Tal­iban com­man­der who is a key coor­di­na­tor of insur­gent oper­a­tions in Hel­mand. He also is respon­si­ble for dai­ly oper­a­tions in a road­side-bomb fac­to­ry in Sangin. 

Else­where dur­ing an overnight oper­a­tion, Afghan and coali­tion forces in Afghanistan’s Khost province cap­tured a Haqqani ter­ror­ist net­work sub­com­man­der who facil­i­tates weapons into the province and reports direct­ly to senior Haqqani lead­ers based in Pakistan. 

As the secu­ri­ty force approached the tar­get­ed com­pound, they observed two men run­ning from the tar­get­ed build­ing to a near­by com­pound. The secu­ri­ty force pur­sued the indi­vid­u­als and as they approached, they saw some­one point a weapon out of one of the win­dows with­in the com­pound where the men had gone. The assault force engaged the threat in self-defense and then entered the compound. 

Inside the room, they found a woman dead and anoth­er with a minor wound as a result of the gun­fire. An assault rifle was next to the dead woman, and oth­er weapons found in the build­ing. Four men also were in the com­pound dur­ing the engagement. 

“Afghan and coali­tion forces do not inten­tion­al­ly tar­get women, and we take these inci­dents very seri­ous­ly,” said Army Col. Rafael Tor­res, direc­tor of ISAF Joint Command’s com­bined joint oper­a­tions cen­ter. “We are tak­ing a step-by-step approach in inves­ti­gat­ing what hap­pened dur­ing this operation.” 

The secu­ri­ty force pro­vid­ed med­ical atten­tion to the wound­ed woman at the scene. She lat­er was tak­en to a coali­tion forces med­ical facil­i­ty as a pre­cau­tion­ary mea­sure, along with two male rel­a­tives as escorts. 

While ques­tion­ing peo­ple at the scene, the secu­ri­ty force iden­ti­fied and detained the Haqqani oper­a­tive along with sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents. In the com­pound where the com­man­der was locat­ed, the secu­ri­ty force found rifles, grenades, ammu­ni­tion mag­a­zines and an ammu­ni­tion belt. 

In oper­a­tions around Afghanistan yesterday: 

— An Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty force detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents, includ­ing a Tal­iban com­man­der, in Pak­ti­ka province’s Mota Khan dis­trict. The com­man­der planned and coor­di­nat­ed attacks against coali­tion forces and facil­i­tat­ed the weapons used in his attacks. The assault force found weapons and ammu­ni­tion at the scene. 

— A com­bined Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty force detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents in Hel­mand province’s Lashkar Gah dis­trict while pur­su­ing a Tal­iban mil­i­tary com­man­der with direct ties to senior Tal­iban lead­ers based in Pak­istan. After ques­tion­ing the tar­get­ed compound’s res­i­dents, the secu­ri­ty force detained the sus­pect­ed insur­gents and found an assault rifle with three loaded mag­a­zines, along with Tal­iban pro­pa­gan­da. The assault force did not fire their weapons, and they pro­tect­ed women and chil­dren through­out the search. — In Kan­da­har province, an Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty force detained a sus­pect­ed insur­gent dur­ing an oper­a­tion tar­get­ing a Tal­iban com­man­der who equips Tal­iban fight­ers for attacks against Afghan civil­ians and Afghan and coali­tion forces in Kan­da­har City. He also sup­plies weapons and bombs for the Arghandab insur­gent net­work, offi­cials said. The assault force did not fire their weapons, and they pro­tect­ed women and chil­dren through­out the search. 

— An Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty force detained the deputy com­man­der of the Pul‑e Alam dis­trict Tal­iban net­work in Log­ar province. After ques­tion­ing the res­i­dents of the tar­get­ed com­pound near Kowt­gay, the secu­ri­ty force detained the com­man­der and two addi­tion­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents. They also found and destroyed a large weapons cache con­sist­ing of rock­et-pro­pelled grenades, mor­tars, assault rifles, ammu­ni­tion for auto­mat­ic weapons and mil­i­tary gear. The assault force did not fire their weapons, and they pro­tect­ed women and chil­dren dur­ing the search. 

Ear­li­er this week, a U.S. spe­cial oper­a­tion forces team caught insur­gents in the act of plant­i­ng a road­side bomb Aug. 17 in north­ern Zab­ul province. Dur­ing the sub­se­quent engage­ment, two insur­gents were killed and two oth­ers were wounded. 

In oth­er news, an Afghan civil­ian was found dead and tied to a sign between two home­made bombs in Kan­da­har province today. The man had been shot in the head before being tied up. 

The bombs appear to have been placed near his body to tar­get first respon­ders attempt­ing to help him, local police said. 

In Nan­garhar province’s Bati Kot dis­trict yes­ter­day, two Afghan civil­ians were killed and at least 10 oth­ers were wound­ed when a fuel truck explod­ed near a bazaar. The explo­sion also destroyed three civil­ian vehi­cles and caused dam­age to near­by shops. Ini­tial reports indi­cate the blast was caused by an insur­gent bomb, offi­cials said. The inci­dent is under investigation. 

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

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