Afghan, Coalition Forces Detain Taliban Leaders

WASHINGTON, Jan. 12, 2011 — Afghan and coali­tion forces detained sev­er­al Tal­iban lead­ers and oth­er insur­gents in oper­a­tions yes­ter­day in Afghanistan, mil­i­tary offi­cials report­ed.

— In Pak­tia province’s Gardez dis­trict, com­bined forces act­ing on leads detained a Tal­iban leader and a sus­pect­ed insur­gent. The Tal­iban leader is respon­si­ble for a group of insur­gents who attack coali­tion forces with road­side bombs, has con­nec­tions to a Pak­istan-based bomb-attack train­ing pro­gram and facil­i­tates send­ing Tal­iban mem­bers abroad to receive train­ing, offi­cials said. Recent report­ing indi­cates he plant­ed a bomb at a play­ground, they added. The detained men had weapons and armor-pierc­ing ammunition. 

— Part­nered Afghan and coali­tion forces in Nan­garhar province detained a Tal­iban leader who oper­ates in the Pachir wa Agam dis­trict dur­ing an oper­a­tion in the province’s Surkh Rod dis­trict. The Tal­iban leader coor­di­nat­ed, orga­nized and facil­i­tat­ed attacks against Afghan gov­ern­ment offi­cials and coali­tion forces through­out the region, offi­cials said, and planned to gath­er weapons, ammu­ni­tion and bomb-mak­ing mate­ri­als for a forth­com­ing attack. 

— Afghan and coali­tion forces detained three Tal­iban lead­ers and anoth­er sus­pect­ed insur­gent in Paktia’s Gardez dis­trict. One of the detainees, the Tal­iban leader for the dis­trict, had tak­en over plan­ning for upcom­ing insur­gent oper­a­tions after oth­er Tal­iban lead­ers had been detained. The sec­ond detained leader also had been involved in attack plan­ning, and the third is a facil­i­ta­tor who pro­vid­ed finan­cial sup­port to the insur­gency through nar­cotics traf­fick­ing, offi­cials said. 

— Part­nered Afghan and coali­tion forces detained a Tal­iban leader who oper­at­ed out of Kan­da­har City and Arghandab dis­trict in Kan­da­har province, along with anoth­er sus­pect­ed insur­gent. The Tal­iban leader was respon­si­ble for sup­ply­ing mate­r­i­al to insur­gents, attack­ing Afghan and coali­tion forces, and report­ing attacks to Pak­istan-based Tal­iban lead­er­ship, offi­cials said. 

— In Zab­ul province’s Shah Joy dis­trict, Afghan and coali­tion forces fol­low­ing leads while look­ing for a Tal­iban facil­i­ta­tor who oper­ates pri­mar­i­ly in the Shah Joy dis­trict detained two sus­pect­ed insur­gents dur­ing a secu­ri­ty oper­a­tion. The tar­get­ed facil­i­ta­tor is respon­si­ble for sup­port to Tal­iban oper­a­tions, includ­ing the move­ment of bomb-mak­ing mate­r­i­al and mon­ey asso­ci­at­ed with Tal­iban activ­i­ties, and recent­ly had direct­ed an insur­gent to bring him some bomb-mak­ing mate­ri­als, offi­cials said. 

No women or chil­dren were injured or detained dur­ing these oper­a­tions, and the secu­ri­ty forces con­duct­ed them with­out fir­ing their weapons, offi­cials said. 

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

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