Afghanistan — Officials in Afghanistan Describe Recent Operations

WASHINGTON, July 9, 2010 — Mil­i­tary offi­cials have pro­vid­ed details on numer­ous recent oper­a­tions in Afghanistan.

— An Afghan-inter­na­tion­al secu­ri­ty force detained two sus­pect­ed insur­gents in Hel­mand province last night while pur­su­ing a Tal­iban com­man­der with ties to an insur­gent net­work oper­at­ing in south­ern Arghandab dis­trict of Kan­da­har province. The force found 5 pounds of hero­in dur­ing the oper­a­tion and pro­tect­ed women and chil­dren who were present. 

— Afghan and inter­na­tion­al forces detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents in the Tagab dis­trict of Kapisa province last night while pur­su­ing a Tal­iban com­man­der direct­ly linked to a Sep­tem­ber 2008 ambush that wound­ed three coali­tion ser­vice­mem­bers. No shots were fired, and the com­bined force pro­tect­ed women and chil­dren who were present. 

— Afghan and coali­tion forces detained two sus­pect­ed insur­gents in Khost province last night while pur­su­ing a Haqqani ter­ror­ist net­work com­man­der respon­si­ble for plan­ning and facil­i­tat­ing attacks against coali­tion forces. The com­man­der is the leader of a Haqqani reli­gious school in the vil­lage of Lak­en, which he uses to plan attacks and to recruit oper­a­tives and sui­cide bombers. After an Afghan-only force searched the school and secured the scene, they detained the sus­pect­ed insur­gents for fur­ther ques­tion­ing. The secu­ri­ty force found 14 grenades and a num­ber of guns at the school. No shots were fired, and the secu­ri­ty force pro­tect­ed women and chil­dren in the area dur­ing the operation. 

— Afghan and Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force offi­cials con­firmed that a com­bined secu­ri­ty force cap­tured a Tal­iban com­man­der dur­ing an oper­a­tion in the Khugyani dis­trict of Nan­garhar province July 7. The com­man­der is linked to the over­all Tal­iban leader of Khugyani dis­trict and asso­ci­at­ed with the recent influx of Lashkar‑e Tayy­i­ba oper­a­tives into the province. Lashkar‑e Tayy­i­ba is the Pak­istani-based ter­ror­ist orga­ni­za­tion respon­si­ble for the Novem­ber 2008 attacks in Mum­bai, India. 

— Afghan forces con­duct­ed an oper­a­tion the night of July 7 to detain a Tal­iban com­man­der in Hel­mand province’s Nahr-e-Saraj dis­trict. Dur­ing the oper­a­tion, sev­er­al insur­gents pre­sent­ed an imme­di­ate threat to the com­bined force and were killed. Two men were tak­en into cus­tody by Afghan author­i­ties, and about 45 pounds of refined opi­um and a num­ber of weapons were destroyed on site. 

— Also on the night of July 6, com­bined force con­duct­ed an oper­a­tion to detain a Tal­iban facil­i­ta­tor in a com­pound in Log­ar province. After Afghan forces ensured all res­i­dents safe­ly left the com­pound, a large num­ber of women and chil­dren were pro­tect­ed and sev­er­al men were tak­en into cus­tody by Afghan authorities. 

— Afghan forces work­ing with ISAF part­ners locat­ed and destroyed two road­side bombs on a high­way in Zab­ul province July 6. The com­bined response result­ed from a tip by a local res­i­dent to the Shin Kay dis­trict gov­er­nor, who con­tact­ed Afghan forces and mem­bers of an ISAF team to coor­di­nate the safe removal of the bombs. 

— A com­bined force con­duct­ed an oper­a­tion July 6 to dis­rupt a com­pound in Lagh­man province used to build road­side bombs. Three bombs and sev­er­al hand grenades, as well as rock­ets and rock­et pro­pelled grenades were seized, and sev­er­al men were tak­en into cus­tody by Afghan authorities. 

— On July 5, a com­bined force stopped a sus­pect vehi­cle in Helmand’s Lashkar Gah dis­trict, and the occu­pants fled to a near­by com­pound. Afghan forces ensured all res­i­dents came out of the com­pound safe­ly and pro­tect­ed women and chil­dren who were present. The vehi­cle occu­pants, who are part of a nar­cotics and lethal smug­gling net­work, were tak­en into custody.

In oth­er news from Afghanistan, artillery fire from an ISAF unit was observed falling short of its intend­ed tar­get yes­ter­day in Pak­tia province’s Jani Khel dis­trict. Short­ly there­after, eight injured Afghan civil­ians were brought to a near­by ISAF out­post. They received imme­di­ate care and were trans­port­ed to an ISAF med­ical facil­i­ty for fur­ther treat­ment. One of the wound­ed civil­ians lat­er died. 

Afghan and ISAF lead­ers con­duct­ed a meet­ing with local elders fol­low­ing the acci­dent and will hold anoth­er meet­ing today to dis­cuss the inci­dent with mem­bers of the greater Jani Khel com­mu­ni­ty. ISAF offi­cials are inves­ti­gat­ing the inci­dent with Afghan gov­ern­ment offi­cials and Afghan secu­ri­ty forces to deter­mine the cause. ISAF offi­cials offered con­do­lences to those affect­ed and said they will accept full respon­si­bil­i­ty for any actions that led to the incident. 

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