Afghanistan ‑Afghan, Coalition Forces Conduct Numerous Operations

KABUL — Afghan forces and their inter­na­tion­al part­ners con­duct­ed sev­er­al oper­a­tions around Afghanistan last night and today, mil­i­tary offi­cials report­ed.

The oper­a­tions result­ed in numer­ous mil­i­tants being killed, wound­ed or cap­tured, and in the seizure of ene­my weapons caches and stock­piles of drugs that pro­vide finan­cial cap­i­tal for insur­gent activity. 

A Tal­iban sub­com­man­der and oth­er insur­gents were killed, and two insur­gents were cap­tured, by an Afghan-inter­na­tion­al secu­ri­ty force in Nan­garhar province’s Surkh Rod dis­trict last night. The com­bined force was fired upon when approach­ing a com­pound where intel­li­gence infor­ma­tion had ver­i­fied insur­gent activ­i­ty was tak­ing place. Dur­ing the ensu­ing fire­fight, the secu­ri­ty force made sev­er­al attempts to get the peo­ple in the com­pound to stop fir­ing and come out, with­out success. 

After the fight­ing end­ed, the com­bined force found that one of the mil­i­tants killed was a Tal­iban sub­com­man­der respon­si­ble for rock­et attacks and ambush­es against inter­na­tion­al forces. Two wound­ed mil­i­tants were cap­tured, and were evac­u­at­ed to an Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force med­ical treat­ment facility. 

The com­bined force found auto­mat­ic rifles, a shot­gun, pis­tols and com­mu­ni­ca­tions equip­ment in and around the compound. 

In Zab­ul province’s Tar­nak-wa Jel­dak dis­trict last night, sev­er­al insur­gents were killed by pre­ci­sion air strikes after intel­li­gence assets tracked a group in a rur­al area east of Chakar Kheyl. A com­bined secu­ri­ty force found an anti-tank mine, bomb com­po­nents, rock­et-pro­pelled grenade launch­ers, rock­et rounds, auto­mat­ic rifles and com­mu­ni­ca­tions equip­ment at the scene. 

In a sep­a­rate oper­a­tion in the same dis­trict of Zab­ul yes­ter­day, an Afghan-inter­na­tion­al secu­ri­ty force killed two Tal­iban com­man­ders after intel­li­gence assets tracked a vehi­cle in a rur­al area after find­ing indi­ca­tions of mil­i­tant activ­i­ty. As the assault force approached the vehi­cle, they received hos­tile fire. The com­bined force returned fire and killed the two occu­pants, both Tal­iban com­man­ders who were respon­si­ble for sev­er­al road­side-bomb attacks and small-arms ambush­es on Afghan and ISAF forces. The assault force searched the vehi­cle and found auto­mat­ic rifles and com­mu­ni­ca­tions equipment. 

Anoth­er Afghan-inter­na­tion­al secu­ri­ty force cap­tured a Haqqani ter­ror­ist net­work bomb-attack facil­i­ta­tor and sev­er­al oth­er mil­i­tants in Khost province last night while act­ing on intel­li­gence infor­ma­tion that led the force to a com­pound in the Tereyzai district. 

The assault force found bomb-mak­ing mate­ri­als, blast­ing caps and demo­li­tion cord at the site. A reli­gious school was used as the insur­gents’ weapons stor­age facil­i­ty, offi­cials said. 

A sep­a­rate Afghan-inter­na­tion­al secu­ri­ty force cap­tured a Haqqani-net­work com­man­der believed to be respon­si­ble for train­ing insur­gents and mak­ing elec­tron­ics for road­side bombs in Khost yes­ter­day. Sev­er­al oth­er insur­gents also were cap­tured dur­ing the operation. 

Dur­ing the search, an armed insur­gent who tried to flee the com­pound fired on the assault force and was shot and killed. The search team found rifles, grenades and ammu­ni­tion in the compound. 

In the Ab Band dis­trict of Ghazni province last night, an Afghan-inter­na­tion­al secu­ri­ty force killed an insur­gent and cap­tured a for­eign fight­er facil­i­ta­tor and oth­er militants. 

When the assault force approached the tar­get­ed area, an armed mil­i­tant was seen run­ning away. As a secu­ri­ty force pur­sued him, he turned to fire and was shot and killed. Auto­mat­ic rifles and ammu­ni­tion were found at the site. 

An Afghan-inter­na­tion­al secu­ri­ty force killed mul­ti­ple mil­i­tants and cap­tured anoth­er in Ghazni province’s Khan­jari dis­trict yes­ter­day morning. 

As the assault force approached, a group of armed mil­i­tants was seen mov­ing from a com­pound to a near­by tree line, like­ly to estab­lish ambush posi­tions. As the secu­ri­ty force cleared the area, it came under ene­my fire. The force returned fire, killing the insur­gents. Exam­i­na­tion of the mil­i­tant fight­ing posi­tions in the tree line found machine guns, rock­et-pro­pelled grenades and auto­mat­ic rifles. 

A Tal­iban com­man­der respon­si­ble for plan­ning and exe­cut­ing attacks against coali­tion forces was cap­tured along with sev­er­al oth­er mil­i­tants by an Afghan-inter­na­tion­al secu­ri­ty force in Hel­mand province last night, about five miles west of Mar­ja. Reports indi­cate no civil­ians were harmed in the oper­a­tion, offi­cials said. 

In oth­er news, sev­er­al coali­tion and Afghan ser­vice­mem­bers were injured today when a coali­tion heli­copter con­duct­ing a com­bined oper­a­tion was dam­aged dur­ing a hard land­ing in north­ern Kan­da­har province. No one was killed, and the injured were tak­en to a near­by ISAF med­ical facility. 

Ene­my actions were not respon­si­ble for the acci­dent, offi­cials said, and Afghan com­man­dos with coali­tion part­ners have secured the crash site. The cause of the acci­dent is being investigated. 

Source:
From an Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force Joint Com­mand News Release