Combined Force Captures Taliban Commander

WASHINGTON, Feb. 2, 2012 — An Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty force cap­tured a Tal­iban leader and detained an addi­tion­al sus­pect­ed insur­gent dur­ing an oper­a­tion in the Nahr‑e Saraj dis­trict of Afghanistan’s Hel­mand province today, mil­i­tary offi­cials report­ed.

The leader direct­ed road­side-bomb attacks against Afghan forces through­out the dis­trict, offi­cials said. 

In Afghanistan oper­a­tions yesterday: 

— In the Darah-ye dis­trict of Kunar province, a com­bined patrol found and destroyed about 880 pounds of hashish. 

In Jan. 31 operations: 

— An Afghan-led and coali­tion-sup­port­ed force detained two sus­pects and seized and destroyed two anti-tank mines, heavy machine gun ammu­ni­tion and bomb com­po­nents in the Bati Kot dis­trict of Nan­garhar province. 

In Jan. 29 operations: 

— In the Zharay dis­trict of Kan­da­har province, Afghan sol­diers and police turned in three weapons caches to coali­tion troops. The first includ­ed a used artillery shell con­tain­ing about 10 pounds of home­made explo­sive, some pres­sure-plates, two jugs of explo­sives, four rock­et-pro­pelled grenades, three 82 mm recoil­less rifle rounds, two Chi­nese 60 mm mor­tar rounds, and oth­er weapon com­po­nents. The sec­ond con­sist­ed of 12 82 mm rock­ets and a tri­pod. The third cache con­tained two jugs of explo­sives, two pres­sure plates and two rock­et-pro­pelled-grenade warheads. 

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