Afghanistan — Intelligence Reports, Tips Lead to Insurgent’s Capture

WASHINGTON, Oct. 6, 2010 — Mul­ti­ple intel­li­gence sources and tips from local res­i­dents yes­ter­day led Afghan and coali­tion forces in the Muham­mad Aghah dis­trict of Afghanistan’s Log­ar province to arrest a man who alleged­ly facil­i­tates and con­ducts road­side-bomb attacks, mil­i­tary offi­cials report­ed.

The insur­gent was arrest­ed on an Afghan gov­ern­ment warrant. 

In oth­er news from Afghanistan: 

— A com­bined patrol in Kan­darhar province killed sev­er­al insur­gents when it was fired upon as it attempt­ed to stop their vehi­cle based on intel­li­gence reports and tips from civil­ians. A search of the vehi­cle yield­ed 1,675 pounds of processed hero­in, 551 pounds of hashish, 440 pounds of wet opi­um, 20 remote-con­trolled road­side bombs, five bomb ini­tia­tor packs and four assault rifles with ammu­ni­tion. The nar­cotics, weapons and vehi­cle were destroyed on site. 

— Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force offi­cials con­firmed claims that a man found shack­led and locked in a room dur­ing an Oct. 4 Afghan and coali­tion oper­a­tion was being held by the Tal­iban. The man is an Afghan reserve police mem­ber in Hel­mand province’s Mar­ja dis­trict and was kid­napped at a check­point about a week before his res­cue. Afghan and coali­tion forces detained two sus­pect­ed Tal­iban insur­gents yes­ter­day while in their con­tin­ued pur­suit of his alleged cap­tor, who com­mands up to 20 ene­my fighters. 

— Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty forces act­ing on intel­li­gence infor­ma­tion and civil­ian tips cap­tured a Haqqani ter­ror­ist net­work facil­i­ta­tor who report­ed­ly has pro­vid­ed weapons, ammu­ni­tion and sui­cide bombers for attacks through­out Khost province’s Sabari dis­trict, along with sev­er­al associates. 

— Afghan-led secu­ri­ty forces last night tar­get­ed a Tal­iban senior leader based in Kan­da­har province’s Dand dis­trict who coor­di­nates bomb­ing attacks and com­mands a kid­nap­ping cell tar­get­ing Afghan gov­ern­ment offi­cials and Afghan civil­ians sup­port­ive of coali­tion forces. Based on intel­li­gence reports, the secu­ri­ty force went to a com­pound in the province’s Zharay dis­trict to search for the Tal­iban leader. When mul­ti­ple grenades were thrown at the secu­ri­ty force from a near­by wood line, the secu­ri­ty force engaged and killed one insur­gent. After the area was secure, the secu­ri­ty force ques­tioned the res­i­dents at the scene and detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insurgents. 

— In Ghazni province’s Andar dis­trict yes­ter­day, a part­nered Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty force cap­tured a Tal­iban bomb-attack oper­a­tive who also facil­i­tat­ed and con­duct­ed heavy machine gun and small-arms attacks against coali­tion convoys. 

— ISAF offi­cials con­firmed that Sain­ul­lah, a Haqqani net­work facil­i­ta­tor who sup­plied weapons used for attacks through­out Khost province’s Musa Khel dis­trict was killed dur­ing an Oct. 4 com­bined oper­a­tion. Intel­li­gence tips led the secu­ri­ty force to a remote com­pound in the Sabari dis­trict to search for the facil­i­ta­tor. As the secu­ri­ty force engaged sev­er­al insur­gents who threat­ened them, killing three, includ­ing Sain­ul­lah. The secu­ri­ty force detained a sus­pect­ed insur­gent and recov­ered a machine gun and bomb-mak­ing materials. 

— Coali­tion forces killed Qari Ziaud­din, the Tal­iban shad­ow gov­er­nor in Faryab province, in a pre­ci­sion air strike yes­ter­day. The shad­ow gov­er­nor was direct­ly asso­ci­at­ed with and took direct oper­a­tional orders from a Pak­istan-based leader of the north­ern front, offi­cials said. Based on intel­li­gence sources, coali­tion forces tracked him to a remote area of the Dowlatabad dis­trict. The strike was con­duct­ed only after care­ful plan­ning to ensure no civil­ians were present. Armed insur­gents threat­ened the fol­low-on ground force that went to the site to assess the results of the strike. Four insur­gents were killed in the engage­ment, and the ground force con­firmed Qari Ziaud­din was killed dur­ing the air strike. The secu­ri­ty force also searched a series of caves and found a destroyed machine gun, mul­ti­ple auto­mat­ic weapons, grenades, mag­a­zines and machine gun ammu­ni­tion along with bomb-mak­ing mate­ri­als. They also dis­cov­ered a weapons cache, but large sec­ondary explo­sions pre­vent­ed the force from assess­ing the con­tents, offi­cials said. 

— Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty forces tar­get­ed a Tal­iban senior leader who facil­i­tates weapons, con­ducts attacks and leads a bomb-attack cell in the Jagha­to dis­trict of War­dak province dur­ing an overnight oper­a­tion in neigh­bor­ing Ghazni province. Intel­li­gence tips led the secu­ri­ty force to a com­pound in Ghazni’s Rashidan dis­trict to search for the tar­get­ed indi­vid­ual. As the part­nered force began to clear the com­pound, they engaged and killed an insur­gent who threat­ened them. After the area was secure, the force ques­tioned res­i­dents at the scene and detained a sus­pect­ed insur­gent. The force also found and destroyed a recoil­less rifle with rounds, mul­ti­ple mag­a­zines and machine gun ammu­ni­tion. — An Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty force detained sev­er­al insur­gents and killed two dur­ing an overnight clear­ing oper­a­tion in Kunar province. Recent report­ing led the secu­ri­ty force to tar­get a series of com­pounds in the Nur­gal dis­trict. When they arrived at the scene, the part­nered force imme­di­ate­ly received ene­my fire. Coali­tion forces respond­ed, killing two insur­gents. After ques­tion­ing all the res­i­dents, the secu­ri­ty force detained sev­er­al insur­gents and also found and destroyed mul­ti­ple weapons and more than 1,000 rounds of assault-rifle ammunition. 

— The Afghan army’s 8th Com­man­do Kan­dak — or bat­tal­ion — on a part­nered patrol with coali­tion forces, recov­ered a large weapons cache Oct. 3 in Uruz­gan province. As part of the patrol, the Afghan-led force also had sched­uled meet­ings with local Afghan lead­ers to dis­cuss pos­si­ble infra­struc­ture devel­op­ment projects in the local area. The cache con­sist­ed of two rock­et-pro­pelled grenades, six road­side bombs, three con­tain­ers of five-gal­lon jugs of home­made explo­sives with det­o­na­tors insert­ed, a radio-con­trolled road­side bomb, ammu­ni­tion, a tac­ti­cal vest, a water bot­tle filled with home­made explo­sive encased with wood and springs to cre­ate shrap­nel when det­o­nat­ed, and a bag of home­made explo­sives. Offi­cials not­ed that part­nered forces pro­tect­ed any women and chil­dren present dur­ing the operations. 

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

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