Afghanistan — Provincial Official Helps Thwart Insurgent Attack

WASHINGTON, July 12, 2010 — Afghan Nation­al Police and the sub­gov­er­nor of Ghazni province thwart­ed an insur­gent attack in Gahzni’s Khwa­jah Omari dis­trict yes­ter­day, mil­i­tary offi­cials report­ed.

Insur­gents planned to attack the funer­al pro­ces­sion for Moham­mad Riza, the district’s for­mer head pros­e­cu­tor, who was mur­dered by insur­gents July 9. Afghan forces set up a check­point out­side the vil­lage of Deh Kuli to dis­rupt the attack, and the insur­gents attacked the check­point instead. When the sub­gov­er­nor heard of the attack, he rushed to the scene with his per­son­al body­guards to sup­port the nation­al police. Sev­er­al insur­gents were killed, and sev­er­al police offi­cers were wounded. 

Mean­while, mil­i­tary offi­cials pro­vid­ed details of numer­ous recent oper­a­tions in Afghanistan. 

In Log­ar province’s Pul‑e Alam dis­trict last night, a com­bined Afghan-inter­na­tion­al secu­ri­ty force detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents while pur­su­ing a Tal­iban com­man­der respon­si­ble for bomb­ing attacks against coali­tion forces in Bara­ki Barak. No shots were fired, and the com­bined secu­ri­ty force pro­tect­ed women and chil­dren who were present. 

Also last night, an Afghan-inter­na­tion­al force killed a sus­pect­ed insur­gent and detained sev­er­al oth­ers in Khost province’s Sabari dis­trict while pur­su­ing a Haqqani ter­ror­ist net­work weapons facil­i­ta­tor linked to bomb­ing attacks against coali­tion forces. As the com­bined force secured the tar­get­ed com­pound, a man assault­ed a sol­dier and tried to grab the bar­rel of his weapon. The sol­dier engaged in self defense and shot the man. Mul­ti­ple auto­mat­ic weapons, grenades and bomb-mak­ing mate­ri­als were found and destroyed, and women and the com­bined force pro­tect­ed chil­dren who were present. 

Dur­ing a clear­ing oper­a­tion in Kun­duz province’s Cha­har Darah dis­trict last night, an Afghan-inter­na­tion­al secu­ri­ty force detained a sus­pect­ed insur­gent while pro­tect­ing women and chil­dren who were present dur­ing the operation. 

An Afghan-led patrol of Afghan com­man­dos and U.S. spe­cial oper­a­tions forces found a weapons cache in Hel­mand province yes­ter­day. The patrol, work­ing to estab­lish secu­ri­ty and locate known insur­gents oper­at­ing in and around Mir­mandab and Hey­darabad vil­lages, came under attack sev­er­al times by insur­gents using rock­et-pro­pelled grenades, machine guns and small arms. 

An Afghan woman suf­fered a shrap­nel wound to her leg and was treat­ed by U.S. medics. Two wound­ed insur­gents also were treat­ed and then were detained. 

While search­ing a series of build­ings, the secu­ri­ty force found four makeshift bombs con­nect­ed to a jug of home­made explo­sives, three rock­et-pro­pelled grenades and a launch­er, three 82 mm mor­tars, hand-held radios and bat­ter­ies. The com­bined force met with vil­lage elders who autho­rized the safe destruc­tion of the build­ing hous­ing the weapons cache to pro­tect vil­lage residents. 

In oth­er news, Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force offi­cials uncov­ered a Tal­iban plot to con­fis­cate sup­plies and food intend­ed for dis­tri­b­u­tion to the peo­ple of Afghanistan’s Kan­da­har province. The items, des­tined for non­govern­men­tal orga­ni­za­tions for dis­tri­b­u­tion, were to be hijacked and held by the Tal­iban for their own use. 

ISAF offi­cials said they’re sup­port­ing the Afghan gov­ern­ment to uncov­er the extent of these planned hijack­ings and will work with local offi­cials to ensure the Tal­iban are unsuc­cess­ful in inter­dict­ing the goods. 

In oth­er news, ISAF forces pro­vid­ed med­ical treat­ment to 12 injured civil­ians when their vehi­cle was struck by a motor­cy­cle packed with explo­sives in Helmand’s Garm Ser dis­trict July 11. ISAF mem­bers treat­ed the injured on scene before evac­u­at­ing them to ISAF med­ical facilities. 

On July 10, an Afghan-inter­na­tion­al force killed Malauwi Shah­bud­din, a Tal­iban com­man­der, along with sev­er­al armed insur­gents in Zab­ul province’s Shah Joy dis­trict. Shah­bud­din was respon­si­ble for mov­ing bomb-mak­ing mate­ri­als and for­eign fight­ers into the dis­trict from Pakistan. 

The secu­ri­ty force approached a group of heav­i­ly armed insur­gents in the process of plant­i­ng a road­side bomb in the north­east­ern part of the province. As the force attempt­ed to appre­hend them, an insur­gent det­o­nat­ed a grenade. The secu­ri­ty force engaged and killed the insur­gents, who includ­ed Shah­bud­din, and also detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents. Upon inspec­tion, the secu­ri­ty force dis­cov­ered one of the insur­gents had attempt­ed to boo­by trap him­self by plac­ing a hand grenade under his body. The grenade was ren­dered safe. Machine guns, bomb-mak­ing mate­ri­als and RPG launch­ers with rock­ets and grenades were found with the insur­gents. More bomb-mak­ing mate­ri­als, hand grenades, small arms, RPG launch­ers with mul­ti­ple rock­ets and two motor­cy­cles laden with explo­sives were found dur­ing a sub­se­quent search of the area. The secu­ri­ty force destroyed the weapons and motor­cy­cles at the scene. No civil­ians or secu­ri­ty forces were injured. 

Also July 10, a com­bined Afghan-inter­na­tion­al secu­ri­ty force killed sev­er­al insur­gents and detained two sus­pects in Ghazni while pur­su­ing a Tal­iban com­man­der in direct con­tact with Tal­iban lead­er­ship in Pak­istan and asso­ci­at­ed with al Qai­da and the Com­man­der Nazir Group ter­ror­ist orga­ni­za­tion, known for assas­si­na­tions and intim­i­da­tion oper­a­tions against civil­ians. The ter­ror group also is known to oper­ate with the Haqqani ter­ror­ist net­work in attacks against inter­na­tion­al forces. 

The com­bined secu­ri­ty force went to a com­pound in the province’s Andar dis­trict and imme­di­ate­ly was engaged by mul­ti­ple insur­gents armed with auto­mat­ic weapons and grenades. The secu­ri­ty force returned fire, killing sev­er­al insur­gents. The secu­ri­ty force pro­tect­ed women and chil­dren who were present, and no civil­ians or secu­ri­ty forces were injured. 

A com­bined Afghan-inter­na­tion­al secu­ri­ty force killed two insur­gents and detained a num­ber of sus­pect­ed insur­gents dur­ing an oper­a­tion tar­get­ing two Tal­iban com­man­ders in Kan­da­har province the night of July 10. The com­man­ders are respon­si­ble for attacks against Afghan and inter­na­tion­al forces in south­ern Arghandab dis­trict and Kan­da­har City, and also sup­ply weapons and bombs to the Arghandab insur­gent network. 

The secu­ri­ty force tar­get­ed an area known to be a safe haven for Tal­iban fight­ers near the vil­lage of Kher­sak. After clear­ing and secur­ing the sur­round­ing area, the secu­ri­ty force went to two sep­a­rate com­pounds in search of the com­man­ders. As the force approached the first com­pound, two insur­gents armed with auto­mat­ic weapons engaged them and then attempt­ed to flee. Coali­tion forces pur­sued them, and the insur­gents were killed with pre­ci­sion air fire. As the secu­ri­ty force con­tin­ued clear­ing the area, they dis­cov­ered a house boo­by-trapped as a bomb, which they secured. 

At a sec­ond com­pound, Afghan forces used a loud­speak­er to call for all occu­pants to peace­ful­ly come out, then cleared and secured the build­ing. No civil­ians or secu­ri­ty forces were injured dur­ing the operation. 

An Afghan-inter­na­tion­al secu­ri­ty force detained two sus­pect­ed insur­gents and seized explo­sives and bomb-mak­ing mate­ri­als dur­ing a two-day oper­a­tion in Kandahar’s Pan­jwai dis­trict July 10. The force found and destroyed more than 500 pounds of explo­sives, as well as 155 mm artillery rounds and bomb-mak­ing com­po­nents, includ­ing a motor­cy­cle rigged with explo­sives. The force also dis­cov­ered sev­er­al tun­nels under build­ings in the search area. 

On July 10, an Afghan-inter­na­tion­al patrol found and destroyed more than 200 pounds of opi­um and bomb-mak­ing mate­ri­als in Helmand’s Nawah-ye Barakzai district. 

In Kapisa province July 10, an Afghan civil­ian turned in 10 RPG war­heads, eight RPG boost­ers and 27 82 mm recoil­less rifle shells to an ISAF for­ward oper­at­ing base.

Also July 10, ISAF forces pro­vid­ed med­ical treat­ment to four civil­ians injured when insur­gents attacked a mini­van with small-arms fire in Pak­tia province’s Lajah-Ahmad Khel dis­trict. Afghan forces evac­u­at­ed the casu­al­ties to an ISAF med­ical facil­i­ty for care. Sev­er­al civil­ians were killed in the insur­gent attack. 

An Afghan-led force that was attacked while con­duct­ing a secu­ri­ty patrol in Helmand’s Nahr‑e Saraj dis­trict pro­vid­ed aid to an Afghan woman injured by insur­gent fire July 10. Afghan army com­man­dos and U.S. spe­cial oper­a­tions forces were patrolling in and around Mir­mandab and Hey­darabad vil­lages when they were attacked with RPGs and heavy machine-gun fire. 

Dur­ing the insur­gent attack a woman suf­fered shrap­nel wounds and was treat­ed by the U.S. medics. Two insur­gents injured dur­ing the attack were detained after receiv­ing med­ical treatment. 

Imme­di­ate­ly fol­low­ing the attack, the Afghan com­man­dos’ com­man­der con­tact­ed a local elder to pro­vide details of the events. The elder said the com­man­dos’ pres­ence has helped to save civil­ian lives, and he led the patrol to a near­by insur­gent weapons cache. 

An Afghan-inter­na­tion­al secu­ri­ty force detained two sus­pect­ed insur­gents in Ghazni province July 10 while pur­su­ing a Tal­iban com­man­der who is respon­si­ble for smug­gling Pak­istani, Chechen and Arab fight­ers and bomb-mak­ing mate­ri­als into the province’s Shah Joy dis­trict from Pakistan. 

The Afghan-led search focused on a com­pound in the vil­lage of Pur­del in the Gelan dis­trict. The com­bined force was engaged with spo­radic and inef­fec­tive gun­fire from sev­er­al direc­tions dur­ing the search. After ini­tial ques­tion­ing of res­i­dents, the force detained the sus­pect­ed insur­gents. No build­ings were dam­aged, and the force pro­tect­ed women and chil­dren who were present. 

In Pak­tia province’s Ahmad­abad the night of July 9, a sep­a­rate Afghan-inter­na­tion­al secu­ri­ty force killed an armed indi­vid­ual and detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents. The secu­ri­ty force went to a series of com­pounds, and Afghan forces used a loud­speak­er to call for all occu­pants to come out. After no response was observed, the secu­ri­ty force illu­mi­nat­ed the res­i­dence from an over­head air­craft to alert them of coali­tion forces pres­ence. An armed man attempt­ed to engage the com­bined force, and the secu­ri­ty force shot and killed him in self-defense. The team recov­ered a num­ber of weapons in the compound. 

A tip from an area res­i­dent led Afghan and ISAF forces to 178 82mm mor­tar grenades in Badghis province’s Muqor dis­trict July 8. ISAF experts said the explo­sives in the shells could be used to make sev­er­al dozen large road­side bombs. The cache was moved to a safe loca­tion and will be destroyed. 

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