Afghanistan — Combined Patrol Pursuing Taliban Leader Kills Insurgents

WASHINGTON, Nov. 4, 2010 — A part­nered Afghan and Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force patrol killed numer­ous insur­gents while attempt­ing to detain a senior Tal­iban leader in the Kaja­ki dis­trict of Afghanistan’s Hel­mand province today, mil­i­tary offi­cials report­ed.

The Tal­iban leader has planned, coor­di­nat­ed and exe­cut­ed road­side-bomb attacks against Afghan and ISAF forces, offi­cials said, and now directs attacks and facil­i­tates finan­cial sup­port to sev­er­al Tal­iban groups in the province. 

He also is linked direct­ly to senior Tal­iban lead­ers in Pak­istan who pro­vide direc­tion and finan­cial assis­tance, they added. 

Mul­ti­ple intel­li­gence sources and tips from local res­i­dents led the joint secu­ri­ty force to a series of com­pounds. Dur­ing clear­ance oper­a­tions, four armed insur­gents were killed when they tried to engage the secu­ri­ty force. 

A search of the com­pounds yield­ed sev­er­al auto­mat­ic weapons and more than 40 pounds of hero­in. Sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents were detained dur­ing the oper­a­tion. In oth­er news from Afghanistan: 

— An ISAF air strike killed an insur­gent today in sup­port of a com­bined oper­a­tion in Kan­da­har province’s Shah Wali Kot dis­trict. Air assets tracked two insur­gents armed with rock­et-pro­pelled grenade launch­ers and auto­mat­ic weapons mov­ing on a motor­cy­cle. They fired one Hell­fire mis­sile, killing one and injur­ing the oth­er. The injured insur­gent was evac­u­at­ed by an accom­plice on a motor­cy­cle before coali­tion forces could reach his loca­tion. Ini­tial reports indi­cate no civil­ians were injured in this oper­a­tion, offi­cials said. — A com­bined secu­ri­ty force cap­tured a Tal­iban leader extreme­ly active in the facil­i­ta­tion, man­u­fac­ture and use of road­side bombs in Log­ar province’s Bara­ki Barak dis­trict dur­ing an overnight intel­li­gence-dri­ven oper­a­tion yes­ter­day. The tar­get­ed indi­vid­ual also par­tic­i­pates in the facil­i­ta­tion of weapons and ammu­ni­tion to be used in attacks. 

— In west­ern Nim­roz province, a com­bined force tar­get­ing a senior Tal­iban leader involved in vehi­cle-borne bomb­ings and com­plex attacks through­out Farah and Nim­roz provinces detained at least eight sus­pect­ed insur­gents dur­ing an intel­li­gence-dri­ven overnight oper­a­tion. The tar­get­ed indi­vid­ual is also a key facil­i­ta­tor and attack coor­di­na­tor in the area’s weapons and bomb-attack facil­i­ta­tion network. 

— Coali­tion forces con­duct­ed a pre­ci­sion air strike in Khost province yes­ter­day tar­get­ing a senior Haqqani ter­ror­ist net­work leader who coor­di­nates and con­ducts attacks against Afghan and coali­tion forces. Coali­tion forces saw him with a group of insur­gents in a remote area of Khost dis­trict as they were plant­i­ng a bomb along a road. After care­ful plan­ning to avoid civil­ian causal­i­ties, coali­tion forces con­duct­ed the pre­ci­sion air strike, killing sev­er­al insur­gents. ISAF offi­cials are try­ing to ver­i­fy that the tar­get­ed Haqqani leader was among those killed in the strike. 

— ISAF offi­cials con­firmed that Hibati, anoth­er senior Haqqani leader, was killed in Pak­tia province Oct. 30. 

— Coali­tion forces came under fire by insur­gents yes­ter­day while con­duct­ing sev­er­al meet­ings with com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers in Hel­mand province’s Nad‑e Ali dis­trict. Coali­tion forces pos­i­tive­ly iden­ti­fied the insurgent’s posi­tion and returned fire with small arms and indi­rect fire. Insur­gents returned indi­rect fire, strik­ing a com­pound, killing five Afghan civil­ians and wound­ing nine oth­ers, accord­ing to ini­tial reports. Two of the peo­ple killed and six of the wound­ed were chil­dren, offi­cials said. Coali­tion forces imme­di­ate­ly began pro­vid­ing med­ical care to the wound­ed civil­ians and called for med­ical evac­u­a­tion. Insur­gents again opened fire while a med­ical team air­lift­ed the wound­ed civil­ians to an ISAF treat­ment facility. 

–– Pol­ish and Amer­i­can doc­tors from Task Force White Eagle saved the life of an 8‑year-old Afghan girl wound­ed when insur­gents attacked Afghan secu­ri­ty guards in south­ern Ghazni province Nov. 2. The girl’s broth­er took her to For­ward Oper­at­ing Base War­rior seek­ing med­ical care, telling ser­vice­mem­bers there that his sis­ter was injured when insur­gents attacked a civil­ian con­voy. Pol­ish medics pro­vid­ed ini­tial med­ical care, but it soon became nec­es­sary to trans­port the girl by heli­copter to For­ward Oper­at­ing Base Ghazni’s field hos­pi­tal for surgery. The oper­a­tion was a suc­cess, and the girl was trans­port­ed to a provin­cial hos­pi­tal in Ghazni City. 

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

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