Militant Driver Injures Troops in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON, March 31, 2011 — At least three Inter­na­tion­al Nation­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force troops were injured today when their foot patrol was hit by a car in the Kan­da­har dis­trict of Afghanistan’s Kan­da­har province, mil­i­tary offi­cials report­ed.
The unin­jured troops deter­mined that the inci­dent was inten­tion­al and opened fire on the vehi­cle, which lost con­trol and crashed into a ditch, offi­cials said.

Along with the injured ISAF troops, the vehi­cle pas­sen­ger and a pedes­tri­an bystander were killed. The dri­ver and two oth­er pedes­tri­ans were injured and were tak­en to a near­by med­ical facility. 

In oper­a­tions yes­ter­day through­out Afghanistan: 

— A coali­tion airstrike killed numer­ous insur­gents after ground forces saw a large num­ber of ene­my fight­ers maneu­ver­ing near their patrol in Kunar province’s Sar Kani district. 

— Afghan and coali­tion forces detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents while search­ing for a Hezb‑E Isla­mi Gul­bud­din ter­ror­ist who leads at least 50 insur­gent fight­ers in Khost province’s Ter­ayzai district. 

— In Zab­ul province’s Shah Joy dis­trict, a com­bined patrol detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents linked to Tal­iban safe havens through­out the district. 

— Secu­ri­ty forces cap­tured three Tal­iban weapons traf­fick­ers in Kan­da­har province’s Zharay dis­trict. Troops also found 1,000 pounds of mar­i­jua­na and 500 pounds of mar­i­jua­na seeds dur­ing the operation. 

— Forces cap­tured a Haqqani net­work ter­ror­ist in Khost province’s Ter­ayzai dis­trict. He report­ed­ly was traf­fick­ing weapons and explo­sives in prepa­ra­tion for attacks on secu­ri­ty forces. 

— In Log­ar province’s Bara­ki Barak dis­trict, troops detained two sus­pect­ed insur­gents while search­ing for a Tal­iban weapons trafficker. 

— Secu­ri­ty forces found sev­er­al weapons and drug stock­piles through­out Afghanistan. Oper­a­tions result­ed in seizure of 5,250 assault-rifle rounds, 5,000 .50-cal­iber machine-gun rounds, 1,650 pounds of explo­sives, 200 hand grenades, 150 pounds of home­made explo­sives, 21 rock­et-pro­pelled grenades, 15 Afghan army uni­forms, 13 mor­tar rounds, 12 land mines, eight anti-tank mines, four rock­et-pro­pelled grenade boost­ers, four .50-cal­iber sniper rifles, three explo­sive devices, two assault rifles and assort­ed bomb-mak­ing mate­ri­als. Troops also found 1,200 pounds of cannabis resin and 800 pounds of hashish. 

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

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