Afghanistan — Failed Attack on Base Leaves 5 Insurgents Dead

WASHINGTON, Sept. 24, 2010 — At least five insur­gents were killed and anoth­er was cap­tured dur­ing a failed attack on For­ward Oper­at­ing Base Gardez in Afghanistan’s Pak­tia province today, mil­i­tary offi­cials report­ed.

The attack began when a vehi­cle, fol­lowed close­ly by four insur­gents wear­ing sui­cide-bomber vests, attempt­ed to breach a for­ti­fied area of the base. 

Coali­tion forces engaged and destroyed the insur­gents’ vehi­cle. The remain­ing attack­ers were killed as they tried to flee. 

In the after­math of the inci­dent, explo­sive ord­nance dis­pos­al sol­diers found and dis­posed of the sui­cide-bomber vests. No coali­tion forces were killed or injured. 

The oper­a­tion is still ongo­ing, offi­cials said, with coali­tion forces pur­su­ing the rest of the attack­ing force, esti­mat­ed to be around 20 insurgents. 

In oth­er news from Afghanistan: 

— Based on infor­ma­tion from intel­li­gence sources, coali­tion forces con­duct­ed a pre­ci­sion air strike in a remote val­ley of Kab­ul province yes­ter­day, killing Qari Mansur, a senior Haqqani ter­ror­ist net­work facil­i­ta­tor, after he and five of his asso­ciates attacked an Afghan police unit the day before. Qari Mansur report­ed­ly took attack instruc­tions direct­ly from Haqqani senior lead­ers in Pak­istan pri­or to Afghanistan’s Sept. 18 elec­tions, offi­cials said. A sus­pect­ed mine field pre­vent­ed a fol­low-on Afghan police ground force from assess­ing the engage­ment area, but Afghan and coali­tion forces con­firmed all six insur­gents were killed. 

— Act­ing on tips from local res­i­dents and intel­li­gence sources, a com­bined Afghan and coali­tion patrol detained sev­er­al men with sus­pect­ed insur­gent links in Uruz­gan province yes­ter­day. They were found at a com­pound asso­ci­at­ed with a man who spe­cial­izes in con­struc­tion and emplace­ment of road­side bombs and has been involved in numer­ous attacks against Afghan and coali­tion forces. The tar­get­ed insur­gent is believed to have received advanced train­ing in Pak­istan and appears to have close ties to Tal­iban lead­er­ship there, offi­cials said. 

— A con­fessed bomb-attack facil­i­ta­tor detained this week led Afghan and coali­tion forces to a stor­age site of bomb-mak­ing mate­ri­als in Kab­ul today. He said he had hid­den 27 bomb ini­tia­tors at a friend’s house, telling his friend that he was going to leave a gym bag at his home and that he did­n’t want it dis­turbed. Since the home­own­er unknow­ing­ly stored the mate­ri­als, offi­cials said, Afghan author­i­ties did not charge him. 

— Dur­ing a vehi­cle check­point oper­a­tion in Hel­mand province yes­ter­day, a com­bined Afghan and coali­tion force dis­cov­ered an anti-air­craft heavy machine gun and detained sev­er­al men con­nect­ed with its discovery. 

— Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty forces killed an attack­er and detained four sus­pect­ed insur­gents in Hel­mand province overnight while in pur­suit of a Tal­iban mil­i­tary com­mis­sion mem­ber for the Baba­ji area of the province’s Nad‑e Ali dis­trict. The com­mis­sion mem­ber also is believed to be the new deputy mil­i­tary com­man­der for the Lashkar Gah and Narh‑e Saraj area. Dur­ing the ini­tial clear­ance of the tar­get­ed com­pound, the secu­ri­ty force breached a pad­locked door, and a man hid­ing in the room lunged at them with a blade. The secu­ri­ty force pushed him away, but he lunged at them again, and he was shot and killed. Te secu­ri­ty force found 50 pounds of wet opi­um, which often is traf­ficked to fund the insurgency. 

— In an oper­a­tion based on intel­li­gence infor­ma­tion, Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty forces detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents in Kan­da­har province’s Pan­jwai dis­trict yes­ter­day while in pur­suit of the Tal­iban deputy com­man­der for the Dand dis­trict. The com­man­der allo­cates and dis­trib­utes ammu­ni­tion and weapons, to fight­ers in his area and report­ed­ly is involved in the acqui­si­tion of sui­cide-bomber vests and vehi­cle-borne bombs. 

— Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty forces act­ing on intel­li­gence infor­ma­tion detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents and seized weapons in Khost province yes­ter­day while in pur­suit of a Haqqani weapons and ammu­ni­tion facil­i­ta­tor oper­at­ing in the Sabari district. 

— Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty forces detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents in Pak­tia province yes­ter­day dur­ing an intel­li­gence-based oper­a­tion while in pur­suit of a Tal­iban sub­com­man­der oper­at­ing in the Mata Khan dis­trict. The com­man­der coor­di­nates and con­ducts road­side-bomb attacks and facil­i­tates weapons and ammu­ni­tion for future attacks. 

— An Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty patrol in Hel­mand province found more than 3,300 pounds of dried opi­um Sept. 22. A civil­ian vehi­cle became stuck in the sand when the dri­ver attempt­ed to evade the patrol at a vehi­cle check­point. The two men in the vehi­cle fled on foot and were not found. When the patrol searched the vehi­cle they found and destroyed the narcotics. 

— Mul­ti­ple intel­li­gence reports and tips from local res­i­dents led to the deten­tion of a want­ed Tal­iban com­man­der by Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty forces in Kab­ul Sept. 22. The tar­get was a Tal­iban com­man­der and road­side-bomb attack plan­ner who oper­ates in the Kab­ul area. 

— Afghan Nation­al Police and U.S. Spe­cial Forces on patrol in Bagh­lan province came to the aid of eight Afghans injured in a car acci­dent yes­ter­day. The con­voy was en route to Pol‑e Kum­ri when they encoun­tered heavy traf­fic. The part­nered force drove around the traf­fic and found it was caused by an acci­dent that occurred short­ly before their arrival. The part­nered force pro­vid­ed first aid to the eight injured civil­ians and helped to load the wound­ed into ambu­lances and taxis for trans­porta­tion to local med­ical facilities. 

— Afghan and coali­tion forces patrolling in Badghis province’s Bala Murghab dis­trict trans­port­ed a 9‑year old Afghan boy for med­ical treat­ment for blast wounds he’d suf­fered as a result of a rock­et insur­gents launched at the secu­ri­ty force that did not explode on impact. Before the secu­ri­ty team could dis­arm the rock­et, the boy kicked it. It burst into flames and injured the boy. 

— A sui­cide-bomber attack killed a civil­ian and wound­ed about 15 more in north­ern Afghanistan today, accord­ing to ini­tial reports. The explo­sion occurred near an Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force con­voy, dis­abling one vehi­cle, and heav­i­ly dam­ag­ing a civil­ian bus trav­el­ing behind the con­voy in Balkh province’s Balkh dis­trict. ISAF ser­vice­mem­bers assist­ed in treat­ing the injured civil­ians and ana­lyzed the explo­sive device used in the attack. 

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

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