Afghanistan — Combined Teams Target Insurgent Leaders

WASHINGTON, Jan. 14, 2011 — Afghan and coali­tion forces con­tin­ue to remove the insur­gent lead­er­ship in south­ern Afghanistan, where yes­ter­day they detained mul­ti­ple sus­pects in Kan­da­har province and anoth­er in Hel­mand province, mil­i­tary offi­cials report­ed.

Afghan and coali­tion forces tar­get­ing Tal­iban lead­ers who lead assas­si­na­tion attempts against Afghan gov­ern­ment offi­cials detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents after fol­low­ing leads to a com­pound in Kan­da­har City. 

In Helmand’s Nawah-ye Barakzai dis­trict, a com­bined force tar­get­ed a mid-lev­el Tal­iban leader after mul­ti­ple intel­li­gence reports and res­i­dents’ tips led the force to a com­pound asso­ci­at­ed with a man known for bomb­ing attacks. 

Afghan secu­ri­ty forces called out to the occu­pants to come out peace­ful­ly. A man, two women and three chil­dren came out. The secu­ri­ty force pro­tect­ed the women and chil­dren, and the man was detained fol­low­ing questioning. 

As the force moved toward a small build­ing in the com­pound, a man armed with an auto­mat­ic weapon moved in their direc­tion, threat­en­ing the force, and was killed. Two more men were detained as the secu­ri­ty force con­tin­ued to search the compound. 

Today, an Afghan civil­ian was seri­ous­ly wound­ed by an explo­sive insur­gents plant­ed in Pak­tia province’s Jaji dis­trict. Coali­tion forces pro­vid­ed the man with med­ical care. Also today: 

— An insur­gent was killed dur­ing a coali­tion clear­ing oper­a­tion in south­ern Afghanistan.
— In Helmand’s San­gin dis­trict, coali­tion forces killed an insur­gent who was plant­i­ng a road­side bomb where oth­ers had been plant­ed in the past.
— In Helmand’s Mar­ja dis­trict, a com­bined patrol found four hand grenades, a fuse and 21 60 mm mor­tar rounds.
— In Kan­da­har province, com­bined forces found three weapons caches in the Arghandab and Zharay dis­tricts. The caches con­sist­ed of two anti-tank mines, det­o­na­tion cord, two radios, an assault rifle, 11 rock­et-pro­pelled grenades, three RPG fus­es, nine RPG war­heads, a 82 mm recoil­less rifle round, mul­ti­ple grenade fus­es, a chest rack, six full assault rifle mag­a­zines, explo­sives and loose ammunition. 

Ini­tial reports indi­cate no civil­ians were injured and no dam­age was report­ed dur­ing the clear­ing oper­a­tions. The weapons and explo­sives were con­fis­cat­ed and will be destroyed, offi­cials said. 

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

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