Afghanistan — Officials Confirm Terrorist Leader’s Capture

WASHINGTON, Dec. 1, 2010 — Offi­cials from NATO’s Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force in Afghanistan today con­firmed the iden­ti­ty of a Haqqani ter­ror­ist net­work leader cap­tured by Afghan and coali­tion forces Nov. 28 in Khost province, mil­i­tary offi­cials report­ed.
The Haqqani leader is respon­si­ble for trans­port­ing for­eign fight­ers to the moun­tains near the Musa Khel dis­trict to plan and stage attacks on Afghan and coali­tion forces, offi­cials said.

Also today in Afghanistan, Afghan and coali­tion forces con­fis­cat­ed a num­ber of weapons and munitions. 

In Faryab province, forces found a cache of more than 30 artillery rounds, rock­et-pro­pelled grenades with launch­ers and bomb-mak­ing mate­ri­als. Secu­ri­ty forces plan to destroy the weapons, offi­cials said. 

In south­ern Afghanistan’s Hel­mand and Uruz­gan provinces, Afghan and coali­tion forces found and plan to destroy more than 260 rounds of muni­tions, more than 20 home­made bombs, sev­er­al rifles and bomb-mak­ing materials. 

In oper­a­tions last night, four sus­pect­ed insur­gents were detained. Afghan and coali­tion forces cap­tured two men in Kan­da­har who alleged­ly are con­nect­ed to a nar­cotics- and weapons-traf­fick­ing net­work. Two oth­ers were detained in Kun­duz province in an oper­a­tion that tar­get­ed an Islam­ic Move­ment of Uzbek­istan leader. The tar­get­ed indi­vid­ual is respon­si­ble for facil­i­tat­ing sui­cide bombers from Pak­istan, offi­cials said. 

Afghan and coali­tion forces killed sev­er­al mil­i­tants and detained a sus­pect­ed insur­gent yes­ter­day in Khost province while search­ing for a senior Haqqani leader who alleged­ly is respon­si­ble for coor­di­nat­ing bomb­ing attacks against secu­ri­ty forces in the area. Afghan and coali­tion forces approached a build­ing where they believed he was hid­ing. They imme­di­ate­ly took fire from inside the build­ing. After the fire­fight, sev­er­al insur­gents sur­ren­dered. A num­ber of weapons, muni­tions and bomb-mak­ing mate­ri­als were con­fis­cat­ed. In Zab­ul province yes­ter­day, Afghan police at a check­point detained a man who was trans­port­ing more than a ton of ammo­ni­um nitrate from Pak­istan. Insur­gents use the fer­til­iz­er, banned by the Afghan gov­ern­ment, in mak­ing home­made bombs. 

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

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