Afghanistan — Combined Force Captures Haqqani Leader in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON, May 27, 2011 — A com­bined Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty force cap­tured a Haqqani ter­ror­ist net­work leader and sev­er­al of his asso­ciates in the Gardez dis­trict of Afghanistan’s Pak­tia province yes­ter­day, mil­i­tary offi­cials report­ed.
The leader com­mand­ed 30 to 40 fight­ers in the Khost and Gardez dis­tricts who were involved in anti-gov­ern­ment oper­a­tions along the main road between the province’s Sper­ah and Nadir Shah Kot dis­tricts.

In oth­er oper­a­tions yesterday: 

— In Hel­mand province’s Nahr‑e Saraj dis­trict, a com­bined force detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents while search­ing for a Tal­iban leader respon­si­ble for plan­ning and com­mand­ing oper­a­tions against Afghan forces. 

— A com­bined force detained two sus­pect­ed insur­gents in Kan­da­har province’s Kan­da­har city while search­ing for a Tal­iban leader. The leader directs a core group of insur­gent fight­ers aug­ment­ed by al-Qai­da-asso­ci­at­ed for­eign fight­ers in Quet­ta, Pakistan. 

— In Khost province’s Man­duzai dis­trict, a com­bined force detained a sus­pect­ed insur­gent dur­ing an oper­a­tion to tar­get a Haqqani net­work leader involved in road­side-bomb man­u­fac­tur­ing and attacks against Afghan gov­ern­ment estab­lish­ments and the Afghan army. 

— In Log­ar province’s Charkh dis­trict, a com­bined Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty force detained two sus­pect­ed insur­gents dur­ing a clear­ance oper­a­tion to dis­rupt future insur­gent activ­i­ty in an area his­tor­i­cal­ly asso­ci­at­ed with Tal­iban facilitators. 

— In Kan­da­har province’s Zharay dis­trict, a com­bined patrol found 551 pounds of hashish. 

— A coali­tion patrol in Hel­mand province’s Mar­ja dis­trict found 1,102 pounds of wet opi­u­mand detained two men asso­ci­at­ed with the cache. 

— In Hel­mand province’s Nad‑e Ali dis­trict, a coali­tion patrol found eight 81 mm illu­mi­na­tion rounds, 49 7.62 mm rounds, 15 5.56 mm rounds and an audio tape. 

— A com­bined patrol in Kan­da­har province’s Arghandab dis­trict found 15 82 mm rounds. 

— In Her­at province’s Shin­dad dis­trict, a com­bined force found a cache of mor­tar and small-arms rounds, sev­en rock­et-pro­pelled grenades, an anti-tank mine, 23 five-quart jugs filled with home­made explo­sives, 53 fus­es, 33 feet of elec­tric wire, two pres­sure plates and 19 RPG pro­pel­lants. In oth­er recent operations: 

— A com­bined force in the Afghan cap­i­tal of Kab­ul found 18 hand grenades, about 4,409 pounds of ammo­ni­um nitrate — a banned fer­til­iz­er used to make road­side bombs — 40 round fus­es, 27 cans of explo­sive mate­r­i­al, 2,700 det­o­na­tors, four timed det­o­na­tors and 20 rifle magazines. 

— In Hel­mand province’s San­gin dis­trict, a com­bined patrol found 220 pounds of opi­um May 23 and 24. The drug cache would have a street val­ue of $500,000 once export­ed, offi­cials said. The force trans­ferred a man who had anacetic anahy­dride — a pre­cur­sor for pro­duc­ing hero­in — to the cus­tody of Afghan forces for questioning. 

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

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