Afghan, Coalition Troops Capture Haqqani Leader

WASHINGTON, Oct. 26, 2010 — An Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty force cap­tured a Haqqani net­work leader who han­dled the com­mand and con­trol of insur­gent attacks dur­ing an overnight oper­a­tion in Afghanistan’s Pak­tiya province, mil­i­tary offi­cials report­ed.

The cap­tured leader also was involved in attacks against coali­tion force checkpoints. 

Intel­li­gence reports led the secu­ri­ty force to a remote com­pound in Zur­mat dis­trict to search for the man. Afghan forces used a loud­speak­er to call for occu­pants to exit the build­ings peace­ful­ly, then the secu­ri­ty force cleared and secured the area. After ini­tial ques­tion­ing at the scene, the force iden­ti­fied and detained the man, along with one of his associates. 

The secu­ri­ty force also dis­cov­ered and destroyed an auto­mat­ic weapon along with mul­ti­ple grenades at the scene. 

In yesterday’s operations: 

— A com­bined Afghan and coali­tion patrol came under small-arms fire from insur­gents after the patrol struck an impro­vised explo­sive device in the Nahr‑e Saraj dis­trict of Hel­mand province. The patrol returned fire after pos­i­tive­ly iden­ti­fy­ing the insur­gents’ posi­tions. Dur­ing the engage­ment, two Afghan men dri­ving a vehi­cle near the con­voy failed to respond to the patrol’s warn­ing sig­nals to stop. The coali­tion force saw rounds impact­ing near the con­voy that came from the direc­tion of the vehi­cle. Per­ceiv­ing the vehi­cle to be a threat, the com­bined force engaged the vehi­cle with small-arms fire. One of the men was shot and died while wait­ing to be med­ical­ly evac­u­at­ed by heli­copter. Coali­tion forces then trans­port­ed the men to a local Afghan police station. 

— ISAF troops repelled an insur­gent attack while con­duct­ing a dis­mount­ed patrol in the San­gin dis­trict of Hel­mand province. Ini­tial­ly com­ing under attack from small-arms fire, coali­tion forces iden­ti­fied the fir­ing posi­tion as a build­ing and returned fire. After the insur­gents fired rock­et-pro­pelled grenades, coali­tion forces called for close-air sup­port. The insur­gent posi­tion was engaged with pre­ci­sion weapons with all ord­nance was observed impact­ing upon the intend­ed tar­get. Ini­tial reports indi­cate more than five insur­gents were killed with no civil­ian casualties. 

— Coali­tion forces con­duct­ed a pre­ci­sion airstrike in Takhar province, killing Qari Mah­mad Umar, an Islam­ic Move­ment of Uzbek­istan senior leader, who was serv­ing as the Tal­iban dis­trict leader for Khwa­jah Bahawud­din. Umar was an IED expert and train­er also involved in mov­ing sup­plies. Act­ing on intel­li­gence tips, coali­tion forces tracked Umar to an open area in the Bahawud­din dis­trict. After care­ful plan­ning to ensure no civil­ians were present, coali­tion forces con­duct­ed a pre­ci­sion airstrike. Although a ground force was unable to con­duct an imme­di­ate assess­ment of the area, they con­firmed Umar, along with one of his asso­ciates, was killed in the strike. 

— In Nim­roz province, an Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty force tar­get­ing the Tal­iban shad­ow gov­er­nor for Khash Rod dis­trict of Nim­roz province, detained two sus­pect­ed insur­gents. Intel­li­gence reports led the secu­ri­ty force to a remote com­pound in Khash Rod dis­trict to search for the dis­trict gov­er­nor. The joint secu­ri­ty force cleared and secured the com­pound before con­duct­ing ini­tial ques­tion­ing of the res­i­dents at the scene. After­ward, the secu­ri­ty force detained the sus­pect­ed insurgents. 

— A sep­a­rate secu­ri­ty force tar­get­ed a Tal­iban IED senior leader known to con­struct sui­cide vests and con­duct IED attacks in Kan­da­har City. The force detained two sus­pect­ed insur­gents dur­ing the oper­a­tion in Kan­da­har province. After clear­ing and secur­ing a com­pound, the force con­duct­ed ini­tial ques­tion­ing at the scene. After­ward, they detained the suspects. 

— Afghan and coali­tion forces in Khost province con­tin­ued track­ing a Haqqani net­work mid-lev­el leader overnight, detain­ing two sus­pect­ed insur­gents with­out inci­dent. The tar­get­ed man coor­di­nates attacks against Afghan and coali­tion forces and places explo­sives in Afghan res­i­dences. Intel­li­gence infor­ma­tion led the force to a com­pound in the vil­lage of Paru Kheyl in the Sabari dis­trict to search for the tar­get­ed man. Afghan forces used a loud­speak­er to call for all occu­pants to exit the build­ings, then the force cleared and secured the com­pound. After ini­tial ques­tion­ing at the scene, the secu­ri­ty force detained the sus­pects, and seized mul­ti­ple auto­mat­ic weapons at the scene. 

— A com­bined force cap­tured a Tal­iban senior leader respon­si­ble for indi­rect fire attacks against For­ward Oper­at­ing Base Shank and IED attacks in the Bara­ki Barak dis­trict in Log­ar province. The senior leader report­ed­ly played a role in the kid­nap­ping and sub­se­quent mur­der of two U.S. sailors in July. Based on intel­li­gence tips, the force tar­get­ed a com­pound in the Pul‑e ‘Alam dis­trict to search for the man. Afghan forces used a loud­speak­er to call for occu­pants to exit the build­ings, then the force cleared and secured the area. After ini­tial ques­tion­ing at the scene, the force iden­ti­fied and detained the senior leader along with two of his associates. 

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

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