Afghan, ISAF Operations in Balkh, Kandahar, Nangarhar

KABUL, Afghanistan (July 7) – Joint Afghan-inter­na­tion­al secu­ri­ty forces con­duct­ed oper­a­tions in Joint Afghan-inter­na­tion­al secu­ri­ty forces con­duct­ed oper­a­tions in Balkh, Kan­da­har and Nan­garhar provinces last night.

An Afghan-inter­na­tion­al secu­ri­ty force killed two armed indi­vid­u­als and detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents in Balkh province last night. The team was pur­su­ing a Haqqani net­work facil­i­ta­tor report­ed­ly involved in plan­ning upcom­ing attacks in Mazar‑e Sharif, and who has had direct con­tact with senior Haqqani net­work lead­er­ship in Pakistan. 

As Afghan and coali­tion forces began to search the area in the Nahr‑e Shahi dis­trict, they encoun­tered two armed men who dis­played hos­tile intent toward the secu­ri­ty force. The com­bined force instruct­ed the men, through an inter­preter, to lay their weapons on the ground, but they did not com­ply and were killed. Afghan sol­diers used a loud­speak­er to call for all occu­pants to exit the series of com­pounds. Once the build­ings were secured, the secu­ri­ty force detained the sus­pect­ed insur­gents for fur­ther questioning. 

A sep­a­rate Afghan-inter­na­tion­al secu­ri­ty force detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents out­side Kan­da­har city last night while pur­su­ing a Tal­iban com­man­der who is a traf­fick­er of weapons and impro­vised explo­sive devices (IEDs) through­out the province. Afghan forces used a loud­speak­er to call for all the occu­pants to peace­ful­ly exit the build­ings and then cleared the area. After secur­ing the com­pounds, the secu­ri­ty force detained the sus­pect­ed insur­gents for fur­ther ques­tion­ing. This oper­a­tion con­tin­ues joint oper­a­tions in Kan­da­har, includ­ing the cap­ture last week of a Tal­iban com­man­der who was an ambush, sui­cide bomb­ing and assas­si­na­tion expert linked to a sui­cide bomb­ing at Kan­da­har air­port in late April, which injured more than 70 civilians. 

Anoth­er Afghan-inter­na­tion­al secu­ri­ty force detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents in the vil­lage of Hakimabad in Khugyani dis­trict, Nan­garhar province, last night while pur­su­ing a Tal­iban com­man­der who facil­i­tates for­eign fight­ers in the dis­trict. The com­man­der had direct con­tact with a Tal­iban com­man­der detained by the secu­ri­ty force July 3. He was also direct­ly linked to the over­all Tal­iban emir of Khugyani dis­trict and asso­ci­at­ed with the recent influx of Lashkar‑e Tayy­i­ba oper­a­tives into the province. Afghan sol­diers used a loud­speak­er to call for all the occu­pants to come out­side and then secured the build­ing before detain­ing the sus­pect­ed insurgents. 

Women and chil­dren present were pro­tect­ed by joint secu­ri­ty forces dur­ing all of the above operations. 

Press release
Com­piled from Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force Joint Com­mand News Releases