Afghanistan — ISAF Forces Respond to Insurgent Attack in Paktika

KABUL, Afghanistan – An Afghan-inter­na­tion­al force came under small- arms and rock­et pro­pelled grenade fire yes­ter­day evening in the Yahya Khel dis­trict of Pak­ti­ka province.

After pos­i­tive­ly iden­ti­fy­ing the insur­gents, the com­bined force request­ed air sup­port. A coali­tion air­craft engaged the insur­gents with a pre­ci­sion-guid­ed muni­tion. As a result of the strike sev­er­al insur­gents were killed and sev­er­al were lat­er detained. The insur­gents fired at the com­bined force from an area near an unmarked mosque. 

Dur­ing the engage­ment the win­dows of the unmarked mosque were broken. 

Fol­low­ing the engage­ment, the patrol found a weapons cache con­sist­ing of six hand grenades, three AK-47s, one sniper rifle, a rock­et-pro­pelled grenade and a book on how to make impro­vised explo­sive devices. 

There were no report­ed civil­ian casu­al­ties and the com­bined force is dis­cussing the inci­dent with local elders and gov­ern­ment officials. 

“Insur­gents often oper­ate in or near mosques, while our forces take great care to pre­vent dam­age to these impor­tant struc­tures,” said Navy Capt. Jane Camp­bell, ISAF Joint Com­mand spokesperson. 

In the last five weeks, Afghan and ISAF forces have been engaged by insur­gents oper­at­ing in or near mosques on two occa­sions. June 3 in Sayyid­abad dis­trict, War­dak province, a joint force received fire from and found an RPG launch­er and RPG rounds, mul­ti­ple auto­mat­ic rifles, and com­mu­ni­ca­tions equip­ment in two mosques. 

July 4 in Cha­har Darah dis­trict, Kun­duz province, a joint force dis­cov­ered a cache of rock­et pro­pelled grenades, auto­mat­ic weapons and an IED ready for use in the vicin­i­ty of a local mosque. 

Press release
Com­piled from Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force Joint Com­mand News Releases