Afghanistan — Afghan Villagers Repel Taliban Attack

WASHINGTON, July 13, 2010 — Numer­ous Tal­iban fight­ers and an Afghan civil­ian were killed today when insur­gents made an unsuc­cess­ful attack on the vil­lage of Aalai Sha­hea in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province, mil­i­tary offi­cials report­ed.

Ear­ly this morn­ing, insur­gents moved from the Khas Uruz­gan dis­trict of Uruz­gan province to Ghazni province and attacked the vil­lage, which main­ly is pop­u­lat­ed by Afghan secu­ri­ty forces and their families. 

After ini­tial attempts to pen­e­trate the vil­lage, Tal­iban fight­ers were met with effec­tive resis­tance by res­i­dents, and the insur­gents fled, offi­cials said. In oth­er news from Afghanistan: 

— Afghan bor­der police seized more than 100,000 pounds of ammo­ni­um nitrate yes­ter­day in Pak­tia province’s Dand-Patan dis­trict after stop­ping a 12-truck con­voy that was car­ry­ing the banned fer­til­iz­er, which can be used to make bombs. The con­voy was stopped at a bor­der police check­point, where ISAF forces test­ed the fer­til­iz­er. Ten of the trucks car­ried legal fer­til­iz­er, but two con­tained ammo­ni­um nitrate. A third truck, also con­tain­ing ammo­ni­um nitrate, was stopped a short time lat­er. More than 900 bags of ille­gal fer­til­iz­er were found in the three trucks, and the vehi­cle dri­vers were detained for ques­tion­ing. ISAF experts said the seized ammo­ni­um nitrate could have been used to make more than 2,100 road­side bombs. 

— Afghan-inter­na­tion­al forces detained a large num­ber of sus­pect­ed insur­gents, includ­ing a Haqqani ter­ror­ist net­work facil­i­ta­tor, dur­ing sep­a­rate clear­ing oper­a­tions in Pak­tia province last night. One secu­ri­ty force was pur­su­ing a Tal­iban sub­com­man­der respon­si­ble for bomb­ing attacks. After the tar­get­ed com­pounds were secured, the com­bined force detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents for fur­ther ques­tion­ing. Mean­while, a sep­a­rate com­bined force in the province’s Zur­mat dis­trict detained a num­ber of sus­pect­ed insur­gents, includ­ing a Haqqani facilitator. 

— In Kapisa province’s Tagab dis­trict last night, a com­bined Afghan-inter­na­tion­al force detained two sus­pect­ed insur­gents while pur­su­ing a Tal­iban com­man­der respon­si­ble for bomb­ing and ambush attacks against coali­tion forces. 

— A com­bined Afghan and ISAF patrol found eight road­side bombs plant­ed near an old school in Kan­da­har province’s Zharay dis­trict yesterday. 

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