Afghan, Coalition Forces Stop Insurgent Attack in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON, Dec. 13, 2010 — Afghan and coali­tion forces yes­ter­day dis­rupt­ed a Tal­iban plot to car­ry out sui­cide bomb­ings in Afghanistan’s Hel­mand province, mil­i­tary offi­cials report­ed.
Troops were search­ing for a Tal­iban leader and sui­cide-bomb facil­i­ta­tor in the province’s Kaja­ki dis­trict. Insur­gents opened fire as the troops approached, and Afghan and coali­tion forces even­tu­al­ly killed numer­ous armed insur­gents. Sev­er­al of the dead insur­gents’ bod­ies were com­plete­ly shaved and pos­sessed poems. Offi­cials said those char­ac­ter­is­tics among Tal­iban oper­a­tives indi­cate they were plan­ning a sui­cide attack.

Also yes­ter­day in Afghanistan: 

— Offi­cials from NATO’s Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force con­firmed the iden­ti­ty of a Tal­iban leader cap­tured Dec. 10 in Khost province. The Tal­iban leader is report­ed­ly respon­si­ble for coor­di­nat­ing attacks on Afghan and coali­tion troops through­out the province. 

— Secu­ri­ty forces cap­tured sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents in Kan­da­har and Hel­mand province. Troops were tar­get­ing mem­bers of a Kan­da­har bomb­ing net­work with alleged ties to a car bomb­ing last month that took the lives of six Amer­i­can sol­diers. Sev­er­al sus­pects were tak­en into cus­tody by sep­a­rate coali­tion ele­ments in Kan­da­har and Hel­mand provinces with­out incident. 

— Afghan and coali­tion forces in War­dak province’s Cah‑e War­dak dis­trict detained a Tal­iban leader with­out inci­dent. The Tal­iban is alleged­ly con­nect­ed to sev­er­al attacks on secu­ri­ty forces in the area. 

In oper­a­tions Dec. 11: 

— More than 40 insur­gents were killed in the past 24 hours by Afghan and coali­tion troops through­out south­ern and east­ern Afghanistan. 

More than 25 insur­gents were killed in Kunar province when troops under fire called for close-air sup­port. Anoth­er oper­a­tion in Kunar result­ed in numer­ous insur­gents being killed and sev­er­al detained. In Hel­mand province, troops mon­i­tored as sev­er­al insur­gents attempt­ed to plant road­side bombs. The inci­dent was report­ed, and avi­a­tion sup­port killed all of the insur­gents involved. 

— Afghan and coali­tion forces killed two armed insur­gents, includ­ing a Tal­iban leader, in War­dak province’s Sayyid­abad dis­trict. He was respon­si­ble for weapons traf­fick­ing and con­duct­ing attacks against secu­ri­ty forces. Troops tar­get­ed and approached his loca­tion, based on tips from local res­i­dents. He and an asso­ciate were armed and threat­ened the troops. Both were killed immediately. 

— Afghan and coali­tion forces killed one insur­gent and detained 10 in an oper­a­tion in Nan­garhar province. Troops were search­ing for a man they believe leads a large group of fight­ers in the province’s Sherzad dis­trict. Troops approached his believed loca­tion and were con­front­ed by an armed insur­gent. They killed him imme­di­ate­ly. Troops also con­fis­cat­ed bomb-mak­ing materials. 

— In Kun­duz province, secu­ri­ty forces killed an armed insur­gent and detained five oth­ers. Troops were search­ing for a ter­ror­ist leader with con­nec­tions to traf­fick­ing for­eign fight­ers from Uzbek­istan and sui­cide bombers from Pak­istan. Troops sur­round­ed the tar­get­ed loca­tion. An armed insur­gent con­front­ed the force, and was killed imme­di­ate­ly. Five oth­ers were detained for fur­ther questioning. 

— Afghan and coali­tion forces in Khost province detained a senior Haqqani ter­ror­ist net­work leader con­nect­ed to numer­ous attacks in the province. Tips from local res­i­dents led troops to the insurgent’s loca­tion. Troops detained the leader with­out incident. 

— Secu­ri­ty forces detained a Tal­iban bomb facil­i­ta­tor in Zab­ul province’s Shah Joy dis­trict. Troops also detained two oth­er sus­pect­ed insur­gents and found a weapons stock­pile. The stock­pile includ­ed numer­ous assault rifles with ammu­ni­tion and bomb-mak­ing materials. 

— Troops in Hel­mand province detained two men at a vehi­cle check­point who were trav­el­ing with large quan­ti­ties of opi­um and refined mor­phine and an assault rifle. 

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

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