Afghanistan — Officials Confirm Terrorist Leader’s Death

WASHINGTON, Dec. 3, 2010 — Offi­cials from NATO’s Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force today con­firmed the death of a Tal­iban leader killed Nov. 20 in Afghanistan’s Hel­mand province, mil­i­tary offi­cials report­ed.
A coali­tion airstrike killed Noor Moham­mad and 12 oth­er insur­gents dur­ing a Tal­iban lead­er­ship meet­ing in the province’s Kaja­ki dis­trict, offi­cials said.

Troops on the ground called in the airstrike after sev­er­al hours of sur­veil­lance and report­ing numer­ous armed guards patrolling the area. Moham­mad was a bomb facil­i­ta­tor who planned and exe­cut­ed bomb­ing attacks against Afghan and coali­tion forces, offi­cials added. 

Offi­cials also con­firmed the iden­ti­ties of two Tal­iban lead­ers cap­tured recent­ly by Afghan and coali­tion forces. 

Tips from local res­i­dents led secu­ri­ty forces to one of the Tal­iban lead­ers Dec. 1 in Ghazni province’s Ab Band dis­trict. His fight­ing cell is respon­si­ble for plan­ning and attack­ing Afghan and coali­tion forces and is known for plant­i­ng road­side bombs along pub­lic roads, offi­cials report­ed. The oth­er Tal­iban leader was cap­tured Nov. 30 in Kan­da­har province. He alleged­ly is respon­si­ble for traf­fick­ing bomb-mak­ing mate­ri­als and nar­cotics to and from Kan­da­har and Pakistan. 

Also today in Afghanistan, Afghan and coali­tion forces con­fis­cat­ed two weapons caches. 

Troops found six rock­et-pro­pelled grenades, four hand-held radios and an auto­mat­ic rifle with more than 250 rounds of ammu­ni­tion in Hel­mand province’s Mar­ja dis­trict. Troops also found 12 rock­ets and var­i­ous small-arms ammu­ni­tion dur­ing an oper­a­tion in Kandahar. 

In oper­a­tions yesterday: 

— A part­nered Afghan and coali­tion force killed sev­er­al insur­gents in Hel­mand province’s Kaja­ki dis­trict. Troops sur­round­ed a com­pound where a Tal­iban leader report­ed­ly based his oper­a­tions. Troops imme­di­ate­ly began tak­ing fire from insur­gents in the com­pound. Coali­tion avi­a­tion assets arrived on scene, killing the insur­gents. Numer­ous sus­pect­ed insur­gents were ques­tioned and detained fol­low­ing the firefight. 

— Afghan and coali­tion forces cap­tured a man in Khost province who pro­vid­ed weapons and ammu­ni­tion to Haqqani ter­ror­ist net­work fight­ers. He also led a team of assas­sins respon­si­ble for kid­nap­pings and killings through­out the province’s Sabari dis­trict. He and two of his asso­ciates were detained. 

— In Kan­da­har province’s Pan­jwai dis­trict, secu­ri­ty forces detained a Tal­iban logis­ti­cian respon­si­ble for coor­di­nat­ing weapons and muni­tions trans­porta­tion through­out the province, along with an associate. 

— In War­dak province’s Sayyid­abad dis­trict, Afghan and coali­tion forces cap­tured a Tal­iban leader respon­si­ble for plan­ning and con­duct­ing kid­nap­pings there. 

— Afghan and coali­tion forces detained a man in Ghazni province’s Gelan dis­trict after ini­tial ques­tion­ing led secu­ri­ty forces to believe he was asso­ci­at­ed with a known ter­ror­ist cell in the district. 

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

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