Combined Patrol Detains 2 Suspects, Seizes Weapons

WASHINGTON — A com­bined Afghan and coali­tion patrol yes­ter­day detained two sus­pect­ed insur­gents and seized a weapons cache in the Khost dis­trict of Afghanistan’s Khost province, mil­i­tary offi­cials report­ed.

The two sus­pects were dis­cov­ered along with the cache, which con­tained eight grenades, two bay­o­nets and 1,000 rounds of small-arms ammu­ni­tion, offi­cials said. 

In oth­er Afghanistan oper­a­tions yesterday: 

— An Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force heli­copter made a pre­cau­tion­ary land­ing in east­ern Afghanistan. Ini­tial report­ing indi­cates there was no ene­my activ­i­ty in the area. There were no report­ed injuries to crew members. 

— A com­bined patrol dis­cov­ered a drug cache con­tain­ing of 2,000 pounds of hashish in the Mai­wand dis­trict of Kan­da­har province. 

— In the Tarin Kot dis­trict of Uruz­gan province, a com­bined force found a weapons cache con­tain­ing two rock­et-pro­pelled grenade launch­ers and six RPG war­heads with motors. 

— An Afghan cit­i­zen turned in 31 mines, 13 grenades, 12 grenade fus­es, and three mine fus­es to coali­tion forces oper­at­ing in the Kah­mard dis­trict of Bamyan province. 

— ISAF announced that a commander’s inquiry and a joint inci­dent assess­ment team will inves­ti­gate a Nov. 23 inci­dent in south­ern Kan­da­har province that con­cerns sev­er­al civil­ians being killed and injured. The inci­dent occurred, offi­cials said, when coali­tion forces respond­ed to insur­gents’ actions. “Pro­tect­ing the Afghan civil­ian pop­u­la­tion is cen­tral to our mis­sion here in Afghanistan and we will inves­ti­gate this sit­u­a­tion ful­ly to deter­mine exact­ly what took place and whether any fur­ther actions need to be tak­en,” said ISAF com­man­der Marine Corps Gen. John R. Allen. “As was Pres­i­dent [Hamid] Karzai, I too was sad­dened by this event. Our thoughts and prayers go out to those fam­i­lies who have been affect­ed by this inci­dent.” The joint assess­ment is being con­duct­ed with the assis­tance of Afghan author­i­ties to deter­mine the facts, offi­cials said, not­ing the commander’s inquiry is tak­ing place concurrently. 

In Nov. 23 Afghanistan operations: 

— A Haqqani net­work facil­i­ta­tor was cap­tured by a com­bined force in the Pul‑e ‘Alam dis­trict of Log­ar province. The facil­i­ta­tor dis­trib­uted road­side bombs and mate­ri­als, and moved weapons and fight­ers through­out the district. 

— A com­bined force dis­cov­ered 890 pounds of mar­i­jua­na and near­ly $50,000 in var­ied cur­ren­cies in a cache in the Pan­jwa’i dis­trict of Kan­da­har province. 

— A com­bined force seized mul­ti­ple firearms and detained sev­er­al sus­pects while search­ing for a Haqqani net­work facil­i­ta­tor in the Khost dis­trict of Khost province. The facil­i­ta­tor coor­di­nat­ed the move­ment of insur­gent fight­ers and weapons from Pak­istan to Afghanistan. 

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