Airstrike in Afghanistan Kills Terrorist Leaders

WASHINGTON, March 11, 2011 — Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Forces con­duct­ed a pre­ci­sion airstrike yes­ter­day tar­get­ing two Islam­ic Move­ment of Uzbek­istan ter­ror­ist orga­ni­za­tion lead­ers in the Dara Soof Payan dis­trict of Afghanistan’s Saman­gan province yes­ter­day, mil­i­tary offi­cials report­ed.
Bilal Kon­duzi, a senior leader in the orga­ni­za­tion and liai­son to the Tal­iban net­work in Kun­duz, was involved in the facil­i­ta­tion and plan­ning of sui­cide-bomber oper­a­tions through­out north­ern Afghanistan and main­tained con­tact with oth­er senior lead­ers in the group to coor­di­nate logis­tics and per­son­nel, offi­cials said.

He also trained sui­cide bombers to con­duct attacks against Afghan and coali­tion forces. 

Shad Moham­mad, the oth­er leader tar­get­ed, ran the group’s net­work in Saman­gan province. He was in direct com­mu­ni­ca­tion with Burkah dis­trict-based ter­ror­ist lead­ers asso­ci­at­ed with plan­ning attacks in Mazar-e-Sharif. 

Secu­ri­ty forces called in the pre­ci­sion airstrike after receiv­ing intel­li­gence reports that the ter­ror­ist lead­ers and oth­er sus­pect­ed insur­gents were iso­lat­ed in a remote moun­tain­ous region. The coali­tion forces ensured no civil­ians or com­pounds were in the imme­di­ate area, offi­cials said. A fol­low-on force con­firmed that Kon­duzi, Moham­mad and four oth­er insur­gents were killed in the airstrike. 

In oth­er oper­a­tions yesterday: 

— Act­ing on intel­li­gence reports, Afghan and coali­tion forces cap­tured a Tal­iban facil­i­ta­tor and bomb­ing cell leader while detain­ing anoth­er sus­pect­ed insur­gent dur­ing secu­ri­ty oper­a­tions in Ghazni province’s Andar dis­trict. The Tal­iban facil­i­ta­tor was direct­ly respon­si­ble for a Feb. 27 road­side-bomb attack against coali­tion forces, offi­cials said. 

— In Nan­garhar province’s Pachir wa Agam dis­trict, Afghan and coali­tion forces cap­tured a Tal­iban facil­i­ta­tor and detained sev­er­al oth­er sus­pect­ed insur­gents. The facil­i­ta­tor planned and orga­nized bomb attacks against Afghan and coali­tion forces, offi­cials said. He also con­duct­ed ille­gal check­points through­out the dis­trict to assist in the smug­gling of explo­sives and sui­cide-bomber vests from Pak­istan for an intend­ed attack against the Jalal­abad airfield. 

— Afghan and coali­tion forces in Khost province’s Sabari dis­trict cap­tured a Haqqani ter­ror­ist net­work weapons and bomb facil­i­ta­tor and detained sev­er­al oth­er sus­pect­ed insur­gents. The facil­i­ta­tor was in charge of finan­cial, media and logis­ti­cal sup­port for the Haqqi­ni orga­ni­za­tion in the dis­trict and coor­di­nat­ed trans­porta­tion for asso­ciates to deliv­er mines, rock­et-pro­pelled grenades and bomb-mak­ing mate­ri­als for use in attacks against Afghan and coali­tion forces, offi­cials said. 

— Afghan and coali­tion forces act­ing on intel­li­gence reports cap­tured an Islam­ic Move­ment of Uzbek­istan mil­i­tary leader and detained sev­er­al oth­er sus­pect­ed insur­gents dur­ing an oper­a­tion in Balkh province’s Mazar‑e Sharif dis­trict. The leader com­mand­ed a force of for­eign fight­ers and was involved in the recruit­ment and train­ing of sui­cide bombers, offi­cials said, not­ing that coali­tion lead­ers spoke direct­ly with Afghan gov­ern­ment offi­cials about an immi­nent sui­cide-bomb­ing threat that could affect cel­e­bra­tions of Nawroz, wide­ly known as the Per­sian New Year. 

In March 9 operations: 

— Afghan and coali­tion forces cap­tured an insur­gent leader and sup­pli­er of bomb com­po­nents near Hel­mand province’s Bande Tim­or dis­trict. Hashim Gul was detained after he was seen run­ning into a com­pound by the Arghandab Rod River. 

— Coali­tion forces on a dis­mount­ed patrol in Helmand’s Nahr‑e Sarah dis­trict killed an insur­gent and detained anoth­er after being fired upon. 

— In Helmand’s Kaja­ki dis­trict, Afghan and coali­tion forces killed two insur­gents, includ­ing a mid-lev­el Tal­iban leader for north­ern Hel­mand who financed insur­gent activ­i­ties in the area. 

Forces in Afghanistan also found sev­er­al ene­my drug and weapons caches in recent days: 

— Coali­tion forces in Helmand’s San­gin dis­trict today found eight pres­sure plates, an assault rifle, a rock­et-pro­pelled grenade, 200 7.62 mm rounds, an anti-tank weapon and four 20 mm rounds. 

— A dis­mount­ed patrol found 104 25 mm rounds in sev­er­al ammu­ni­tion cans in Helmand’s Mar­ja dis­trict yesterday. 

— Afghan and coali­tion forces act­ing on tips in Lagh­man province’s Mehtar Lam dis­trict yes­ter­day found 33 rock­et-pro­pelled grenades, 21 RPG boost­ers, nine anti-per­son­nel mines, two 105 mm rock­ets, five hand grenades and 150 12.7 mm rounds. 

— In Kapisa province’s Tagab dis­trict yes­ter­day, an Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force patrol found three 82 mm mor­tar rounds, a rock­et-pro­pelled grenade, two 105 mm shells, nine rock­ets, 21 rock­et fus­es, three anti-per­son­nel mines, 26 9 mm mag­a­zines, 11 assault-rifle mag­a­zines and 20 bags of sol­id rock­et fuel. 

— Afghan and ISAF forces in Helmand’s Ormuz dis­trict yes­ter­day found 616 pounds of wet opi­um, 88 pounds of con­cen­trat­ed fer­til­iz­er, nar­cotics para­pher­na­lia and a pres­sure plate.

— An Afghan and coali­tion forces patrol found an 82 mm mor­tar round, five rifle mag­a­zines, 155 rounds of var­i­ous cal­iber, a box of fus­es and two 55-pounds bags of hashish March 9. 

— In Kan­da­har province’s Arghandab dis­trict March 9, an Afghan and coali­tion patrol found eight hand grenades, four grenade fus­es and a full assault-rifle magazine. 

— In Uruz­gan province, a com­bined Afghan and coali­tion forces patrol found a weapons cache March 9 in Deh Rawud. The cache con­sist­ed of eight 82 mm mor­tar rounds, two walkie-talkies and var­i­ous radio-con­trolled bomb components. 

— Coali­tion forces in Kandahar’s Spin Boldak dis­trict March 8 found a cache of explo­sives com­po­nents and bomb mak­ing materials. 

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

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