Afghan, Coalition Forces Detain Insurgents in Kandahar

WASHINGTON, Feb. 14, 2011 — Afghan and coali­tion forces detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents yes­ter­day in the Shah Wali Kot dis­trict of Afghanistan’s Kan­da­har province, mil­i­tary offi­cials report­ed.
Troops were seek­ing a Pak­istan-based Tal­iban leader who is respon­si­ble for traf­fick­ing for­eign fight­ers into south­ern Afghanistan, offi­cials said, and also is con­nect­ed to sev­er­al al-Qai­da and Haqqani ter­ror­ist net­work lead­ers through­out Afghanistan.

Intel­li­gence reports indi­cat­ed the Tal­iban leader would be in Afghanistan to help in launch­ing a large-scale attack on secu­ri­ty forces in Hel­mand province. After search­ing a com­pound where they believed the Tal­iban leader might be, the secu­ri­ty force detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents with­out incident. 

In oth­er recent oper­a­tions through­out Afghanistan: 

— Afghan and coali­tion forces killed two insur­gents Feb. 12 at a traf­fic-con­trol point in Nim­roz province. The insur­gents were stopped by secu­ri­ty forces and found with a large amount of nar­cotics. The insur­gents attempt­ed to attack the troops with small-arms fire and hand grenades dur­ing the search of their vehi­cle and were killed imme­di­ate­ly. The oper­a­tion result­ed in seizure of 820 pounds of hero­in, 220 pounds of opi­um, a hand grenade and an assault rifle. 

— Secu­ri­ty forces found sev­er­al weapons stock­piles Feb. 12. Oper­a­tions result­ed in seizure of 3,200 anti-air­craft rounds, 218 assort­ed mor­tars and rock­ets, 29 rock­et-pro­pelled grenades, 26 anti-tank mines, 10 pounds of home­made explo­sives, six hand grenades, five rock­et-pro­pelled grenade launch­ers, an assault rifle, and more than 600 assault-rifle rounds. 

— Afghan and coali­tion forces detained a sus­pect­ed insur­gent and found two weapons caches Feb. 11 in Kan­da­har province’s Spin Boldak dis­trict. The sus­pect was arrest­ed after secu­ri­ty forces found him trav­el­ing with 26,400 pounds of ammo­ni­um nitrate, a fer­til­iz­er banned by the Afghan gov­ern­ment because it can be used to make explo­sives. A sep­a­rate secu­ri­ty patrol in the dis­trict found a vehi­cle with 29 rock­et-pro­pelled grenades, 17 bags of ammo­ni­um nitrate, 10 land mines, sev­en pres­sure plates, four radio-con­trolled trans­mit­ters and two radios. 

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

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