Allen, Karzai Condemn Insurgent Violence

WASHINGTON, Feb. 21, 2012 — The com­man­der of the Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force joined with Afghan Pres­i­dent Hamid Karzai in con­demn­ing a recent spate of insur­gent vio­lence in Afghanistan.

Marine Corps Gen. John R. Allen offered con­do­lences to the Afghan peo­ple for the “des­per­ate acts of mur­der by insurgents.” 

At least six Afghans and an ISAF ser­vice mem­ber died in insur­gent attacks yes­ter­day. In the most recent attack, a man wear­ing an Afghan police uni­form shot and killed an ISAF mem­ber in south­ern Afghanistan. 

In oth­er attacks yesterday: 

— A vehi­cle bear­ing a home­made bomb explod­ed when it rammed a dis­trict police sta­tion in Kan­da­har, killing two police­men and wound­ing four Afghan civilians. 

— A road­side bomb killed four civil­ians, includ­ing a child, in Kandahar’s Shah Wali Kot dis­trict when the vic­tims drove over a road­side bomb. 

“My sin­cere thoughts and prayers are with the fam­i­lies of those killed and injured in these attacks against the peo­ple of Afghanistan,” Allen said. “On behalf of the coali­tion of 50 nations with­in ISAF, I send con­do­lences to the loved ones con­cerned and pray for a swift recov­ery for the injured. 

“These inci­dents again show the insurgency’s total dis­re­gard for the Afghan peo­ple and dis­dain for peace,” he con­tin­ued. “The lack of con­cern for the peace and secu­ri­ty of the Afghan peo­ple, and the con­tin­ued killing of inno­cents, sends an obvi­ous mes­sage by the insur­gents: the Tal­iban do not care who or how many of their fel­low Afghans are killed.” 

Allen said the attacks show insur­gents’ grow­ing con­cern about an increas­ing­ly capa­ble Afghan police force, as the attacks are con­duct­ed from a dis­tance “to avoid cer­tain capture.” 

“The insur­gents should be con­cerned,” the gen­er­al said. “We — ISAF and [Afghan secu­ri­ty forces] togeth­er — will con­tin­ue in our efforts to hold these mur­der­ers to account.” 

In recent Afghanistan operations: 

— A coali­tion patrol in Kandahar’s Zharay dis­trict Feb. 19 seized 16 mor­tar rounds, 12 recoil­less rifle rounds and about 62 pounds of home­made explosives. 

— An Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty force in the Kun­duz dis­trict of Kun­duz province Feb. 18 cap­tured a Tal­iban leader who direct­ed the place­ment of explo­sives tar­get­ing Afghan and coali­tion forces. 

— In the Sabari dis­trict of Khost province, an Afghan-led secu­ri­ty force con­fis­cat­ed bomb-mak­ing mate­ri­als and weapons and detained sus­pect­ed insur­gents while search­ing for a Haqqani leader who directs road­side-bomb and direct-fire attacks against Afghan forces. 

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