Afghanistan — Officials Confirm Local Taliban Leader’s Death

WASHINGTON, Dec. 6, 2010 — Offi­cials from NATO’s Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force in Afghanistan today con­firmed the iden­ti­ty of a Tal­iban leader cap­tured Dec. 4 in Pak­ti­ka province, mil­i­tary offi­cials report­ed.
Afghan and coali­tion forces cap­tured the Tal­iban leader in the province’s Yosuf Khel dis­trict. He is believed respon­si­ble for attacks on secu­ri­ty forces in the area. Coali­tion troops killed anoth­er insur­gent dur­ing the oper­a­tion after he bran­dished a weapon at the troops.

Also today in Afghanistan, Afghan and coali­tion forces con­fis­cat­ed two weapons caches. Troops found one rock­et-pro­pelled grenade launch­er and more than 100 rounds of assault rifle ammu­ni­tion in Hel­mand province’s Mar­ja dis­trict. Troops also found two hand grenades, one assault rifle and var­i­ous small-arms ammu­ni­tion dur­ing an oper­a­tion in Kan­da­har. In oper­a­tions yesterday: 

— ISAF offi­cials con­firmed the death of Tal­iban leader Par Gul Khan, a known weapons traf­fick­er and scout. Coali­tion forces tracked Khan to a remote area of Wardak’s Sayyid­abad dis­trict Dec. 3 and killed him with an airstrike. 

— Afghan and coali­tion forces detained three sus­pect­ed insur­gents, includ­ing an alleged Haqqani net­work mem­ber, in Pak­tiya province’s Gardez city. Troops sur­round­ed a com­pound where the Haqqani mem­ber appar­ent­ly based oper­a­tions. He alleged­ly is con­nect­ed to a sui­cide bomb­ing that killed two coali­tion troops and wound­ed sev­er­al oth­ers in the area ear­li­er in the day. 

— Afghan and coali­tion forces cap­tured a Haqqani net­work leader and two sus­pect­ed insur­gents in Khost province. The Haqqani leader report­ed­ly car­ried out and ordered bomb­ing and direct fire attacks on secu­ri­ty forces in the province. The men were detained with­out incident. 

— In Paktiya’s Tsamkani dis­trict, secu­ri­ty forces removed a home­made bomb from a local hos­pi­tal before insur­gents could det­o­nate it. The bomb con­sist­ed of two mor­tar rounds con­nect­ed to a cell phone and was cov­ered with a scarf. No troops or civil­ians were injured dur­ing the incident. 

— In War­dak province’s Maid­en Shahr dis­trict, an Afghan and coali­tion patrol con­fis­cat­ed more than 200 rounds of small-arms ammu­ni­tion, 100 bomb det­o­na­tion fus­es, 10 rock­et-pro­pelled grenades, and 9 var­i­ous rock­ets and mortars. 

In Dec. 4 operations: 

— ISAF offi­cials con­firmed the iden­ti­ty of a Tal­iban leader killed Dec. 1 in Hel­mand. Juma Gul, a Tal­iban leader known for run­ning a bomb­ing cell was killed in an airstrike. Afghan and coali­tion sur­veil­lance teams tracked Gul trav­el­ing with an asso­ciate on a motor­cy­cle for sev­er­al hours. The airstrike occurred once the two rode into a remote area. 

— ISAF offi­cials con­firmed the iden­ti­ties of a two Tal­iban lead­ers cap­tured recent­ly in Ghazni and Zab­ul provinces. The Tal­iban leader from Ghazni was cap­tured Dec. 2 in the Gelan dis­trict with­out inci­dent. He is believed respon­si­ble for plan­ning and order­ing attacks on Afghan and coali­tion forces. 

The Tal­iban leader from Zab­ul report­ed­ly leads a bomb­ing cell respon­si­ble for ambush­ing Afghan and coali­tion troops. He was detained Nov. 30 with­out inci­dent in the province’s Shah Joy district. 

— Afghan and coali­tion forces killed one insur­gent and detained anoth­er in Paktikia’s Yosuf Khel dis­trict. Secu­ri­ty forces were search­ing for a senior Tal­iban leader respon­si­ble for plan­ning and coor­di­nat­ing attacks against them when they came under attack dur­ing a search of the sus­pect­ed leader’s com­pound. No troops or civil­ians were injured dur­ing the operation. 

— Afghan and coali­tion forces cap­tured sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents, includ­ing an alleged Haqqani net­work leader, in Khost’s Sabari dis­trict. The Haqqani leader is known for plan­ning and con­duct­ing attacks against secu­ri­ty forces. Tips from local res­i­dents led secu­ri­ty forces to the leader’s loca­tion. The sus­pects were detained with­out incident. 

— Secu­ri­ty forces detained two sus­pect­ed insur­gents, includ­ing an alleged Tal­iban leader, in Wardak’s Sayyid­abad dis­trict. The Tal­iban leader has links to sev­er­al recent­ly-cap­tured Tal­iban mem­bers who oper­at­ed in the province. The insur­gents fled the com­pound while secu­ri­ty forces moved in to sur­round them. How­ev­er, troops pur­sued the insur­gents, cap­tur­ing them lat­er that night. 

— Troops in Helmand’s Dishu dis­trict found an explo­sive chem­i­cals cache that includ­ed 2,800 pounds of urea nitrate, two emp­ty fuel tanks, and $6,500. Sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents were detained. 

— In Zabul’s Qalat dis­trict, troops found more than 550 pounds of ammo­ni­um nitrate. 

— Sep­a­rate oper­a­tions in Kan­da­har result­ed in the con­fis­ca­tion of more than 2,000 rounds of small-arms ammu­ni­tion, more than 100 pounds of explo­sives, 27 hand grenades, 12 rock­et-pro­pelled grenades and one assault rifle. 

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

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