Coalition, Afghan Forces Detain Numerous Insurgent Leaders

WASHINGTON, Nov. 9, 2010 — Coali­tion and Afghan forces have cap­tured mul­ti­ple Tal­iban lead­ers involved in ene­my oper­a­tions in Afghanistan in recent days, mil­i­tary offi­cials report­ed.

Afghan and Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force secu­ri­ty forces cap­tured a Tal­iban leader who is believed to be respon­si­ble for sup­ply­ing weapons and coor­di­nat­ing insur­gent attacks, along with three of his asso­ciates, dur­ing an intel­li­gence-dri­ven overnight oper­a­tion in Zab­ul province’s Shah Joy district. 

As the part­nered force approached the tar­get­ed com­pound, they saw a bag thrown from a win­dow and found it con­tained bomb-mak­ing materials. 

Mean­while, ISAF offi­cials con­firmed the cap­ture dur­ing a Nov. 7 overnight oper­a­tion of a senior Tal­iban leader who led attacks in Kan­da­har province’s Dand and Pan­jwai dis­tricts. An asso­ciate also was detained. 

In oth­er operations: 

— In an intel­li­gence-dri­ven oper­a­tion in Kan­da­har province last night, a com­bined force cap­tured a key Tal­iban leader believed to respon­si­ble for insur­gent net­works in Kan­da­har City and the province’s Pan­jwai dis­trict. He is the 15th senior Tal­iban leader cap­tured in the province in the last month and is linked to mul­ti­ple bomb­ings in Kan­da­har City, offi­cials said. 

— A com­bined force in Farah province detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents yes­ter­day while tar­get­ing the Tal­iban leader for the Bala Boluk dis­trict, who report­ed­ly has claimed respon­si­bil­i­ty for numer­ous attacks against civil­ians and against Afghan and coali­tion forces. Intel­li­gence reports led the part­nered force to a com­pound in the Bak­wah dis­trict, where the force detained the sus­pects and found an auto­mat­ic weapon. 

— In Pak­ti­ka province’s Orgun dis­trict last night, a part­nered force act­ing on intel­li­gence infor­ma­tion detained a sus­pect­ed insur­gent last night while search­ing for a Haqqani ter­ror­ist net­work leader who has coor­di­nat­ed attacks against the Saler­no and Chap­man for­ward oper­at­ing bases in Khost province. 

— Also last night, a com­bined force in Khost province found machine-gun ammu­ni­tion and detained sev­er­al peo­ple for ques­tion­ing while look­ing for a Haqqani leader known for coor­di­nat­ing sui­cide-vest and vehi­cle-borne bomb attacks in the Sabari district. 

— In Log­ar province last night, a part­nered force detained a sus­pect­ed insur­gent while look­ing for a senior Tal­iban leader oper­at­ing in the Bara­ki Barak and Charkh districts.

— Act­ing on intel­li­gence infor­ma­tion and tips from local res­i­dents, a com­bined force in Hel­mand province arrest­ed a want­ed senior Tal­iban leader yes­ter­day. The sus­pect report­ed­ly led about 300 fight­ers in the area and was appoint­ed as leader of all Tal­iban forces in and around Mar­ja. The force entered the tar­get­ed com­pound and detained at least 10 sus­pect­ed insur­gents with­out inci­dent, but then became aware of four armed insur­gents set­ting up an ambush to attack them as they depart­ed. The force called in an airstrike that killed all four. 

— In Log­ar province’s Pul‑e Alam dis­trict yes­ter­day, a part­nered force act­ing on intel­li­gence reports and local res­i­dents’ tips found 220 pounds of home­made explo­sives, sev­en 82 mm mor­tar rounds elec­tri­cal­ly primed to explode, five Clay­more mines wired to explode, a 60 mm mor­tar round and an anti-tank mine. 

— A Nov. 7 truck search by a coali­tion patrol in Helmand’s Reg‑e Khan Neshin dis­trict yield­ed more than 4,000 pounds of ammo­ni­um nitrate. The banned fer­til­iz­er is used in mak­ing road­side bombs. The three Afghan civil­ians in the truck were detained. 

— Mul­ti­ple intel­li­gence sources led to the arrest yes­ter­day of a sus­pect­ed weapons traf­fick­er at Kab­ul Inter­na­tion­al Air­port. Afghan forces dis­cov­ered the sus­pect had board­ed an air­plane which had tak­en off and was des­tined for Sau­di Ara­bia. Author­i­ties ordered it back to the air­port, and upon its arrival, Afghan secu­ri­ty forces board­ed the plane. The sus­pect iden­ti­fied him­self and was arrest­ed with­out inci­dent. As part of the Haqqani net­work, he was want­ed for sup­ply­ing weapons and ammu­ni­tion used in attacks against Afghan and coali­tion forces. He also was known to have par­tic­i­pat­ed in numer­ous bomb­ing attacks. Three oth­er sus­pects trav­el­ing with the want­ed man were detained, one of whom was want­ed on an Afghan gov­ern­ment warrant. 

In oth­er news from Afghanistan, ISAF offi­cials said that despite senior Tal­iban lead­er­ship claims of pro­tect­ing civil­ians, insur­gent fight­ers were respon­si­ble for more than 100 Afghan civil­ian deaths and more than 200 civil­ian injuries last month. 

“The insur­gency con­tin­ues to exhib­it strik­ing hypocrisy between their stat­ed objec­tive to pro­tect civil­ian lives and their actions through­out Afghanistan,” said Navy Rear Adm. Vic Beck, an ISAF spokesman. “Their mes­sage sim­ply does not match the real­i­ty that every day, insur­gents are delib­er­ate­ly killing, injur­ing and intim­i­dat­ing Afghan civilians.” 

Recent inci­dents of insur­gent vio­lence against Afghan civil­ians include: 

— Insur­gents exe­cut­ed a truck dri­ver Oct. 1 after he left an ISAF com­bat out­post in Kunar province’s Darah-ye Pech district. 

— A series of explo­sions near an Afghan police check­point result­ed in eight Afghan chil­dren killed and 23 Afghan civil­ians injured Oct. 5 in Kan­da­har province’s Kan­da­har dis­trict. Ten of the injured civil­ians were children. 

— Two reli­gious lead­ers in Kan­dar province were assas­si­nat­ed in mosques. A mem­ber of the Ule­ma reli­gious coun­cil was killed Oct. 4, and a mem­ber of the Kan­da­har reli­gious coun­cil was killed Oct. 10. 

— Ten civil­ians were killed and 10 oth­ers were injured Oct. 19 in Nim­ruz province’s Khash Rod dis­trict when they inad­ver­tent­ly det­o­nat­ed an insur­gent-plant­ed road­side bomb. 

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

Face­book and/or on Twit­ter