Forces Continue Offensive Against Insurgents

WASHINGTON, Nov. 7, 2011 — Coali­tion forces con­tin­ued their offen­sive against the Haqqani net­work and oth­er insur­gents in Afghanistan, detain­ing numer­ous ene­my fight­ers in recent days, mil­i­tary offi­cials report­ed.

A com­bined Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty force today killed an Afghan man dur­ing a search for a Haqqani oper­a­tive in Badak­shan province’s Argo dis­trict. The want­ed man is known to coor­di­nate sui­cide attacks with oth­er insur­gent lead­ers in the north­east cor­ner of the country. 

Dur­ing the search, the Afghan man failed to com­ply with repeat­ed warn­ings and dis­played hos­tile intent toward the secu­ri­ty force, which engaged the man, result­ing in his death. 

The secu­ri­ty force then con­fis­cat­ed a shot­gun and intel­li­gence infor­ma­tion link­ing the Afghan man to the Haqqani net­work. They also detained two sus­pect­ed insur­gents dur­ing the operation. 

In oth­er ISAF news today: 

–In Hel­mand province’s Musa Qal’ah dis­trict, a com­bined secu­ri­ty force detained mul­ti­ple sus­pect­ed insur­gents while search­ing for a Tal­iban oper­a­tive who pro­vides finan­cial, mate­r­i­al and logis­ti­cal sup­port to insur­gents through­out north­ern Hel­mand, Farah and Nim­roz provinces. They con­fis­cat­ed mul­ti­ple assault rifles, a shot­gun, two ammu­ni­tion pouch­es, and bomb-mak­ing mate­ri­als dur­ing the operation. 

–In Kan­da­har province’s Zharay dis­trict, a com­bined force detained a Tal­iban leader respon­si­ble for plant­i­ng impro­vised explo­sive devices and sup­port­ing insur­gents in the dis­trict. The secu­ri­ty force also seized bomb-mak­ing materials. 

–In Nan­garhar province’s Behsud dis­trict, a com­bined force detained a Tal­iban oper­a­tive who gave logis­ti­cal sup­port to local insur­gents, and two oth­er sus­pect­ed insur­gents. Also dur­ing the oper­a­tion, the force engaged a man armed with an AK-47 assault rifle, killing him. Anoth­er man was wound­ed after fir­ing at the force. 

In oper­a­tions yes­ter­day, a com­bined patrol in Kan­da­har dis­cov­ered a vehi­cle-borne IED after receiv­ing a tip from a local civil­ian. The vehi­cle was packed with 500 pounds of explo­sives, which the patrol defused and con­fis­cat­ed. The force also detained mul­ti­ple sus­pect­ed insur­gents while search­ing the sur­round­ing area for addi­tion­al explo­sives. The con­fis­cat­ed explo­sives will be destroyed at a lat­er date. 

On Nov. 5 operations: 

–In Pak­tiya province’s Zur­mat dis­trict, a com­bined force detained sev­er­al insur­gents dur­ing a secu­ri­ty oper­a­tion. The detained leader was respon­si­ble for IED attacks and recruit­ing insur­gents to con­duct sui­cide attacks against Afghan and coali­tion forces. 

–A com­bined force detained a Tal­iban leader and mul­ti­ple sus­pect­ed insur­gents dur­ing an oper­a­tion in War­dak province’s Nerkh dis­trict. The leader direct­ed attacks against Afghan and coali­tion forces in the area and coor­di­nat­ed weapons and finan­cial sup­port for insur­gents. The secu­ri­ty force seized a rock­et-pro­pelled grenade launch­er with mul­ti­ple RPGs, five AK-47 assault rifles, sev­er­al ammu­ni­tion pouch­es, frag­men­ta­tion grenades, and bomb-mak­ing materials. 

–In Paktiya’s Lajah-Ahmad Khel dis­trict, a com­bined force detained mul­ti­ple sus­pect­ed insur­gents while search­ing for a Tal­iban leader who coor­di­nates direct and indi­rect fire attacks against Afghan and coali­tion forces and sup­plies insur­gents with explosives. 

–A com­bined force detained a Haqqani net­work oper­a­tive and two sus­pect­ed insur­gents dur­ing an oper­a­tion in Khost province’s Khost dis­trict. The detained man planned and con­duct­ed attacks, includ­ing kid­nap­pings, against Afghan and coali­tion forces. The secu­ri­ty force seized an AK-47 assault rifle and ammu­ni­tion pouch dur­ing the operation. 

–In Log­ar province’s Pul-e’Alam dis­trict, a com­bined force detained mul­ti­ple sus­pect­ed insur­gents while search­ing for a Haqqani net­work leader who directs road­side bomb and indi­rect fire attacks against Afghan and coali­tion forces, and sup­plies weapons and IEDs to his network. 

Also, in a Nov. 5 ISAF state­ment, ISAF Com­man­der Marine Corps Gen. John R. Allen said he joined Afghan Pres­i­dent Hamid Karzai in con­demn­ing a sui­cide attack that day at a mosque in the Jirqish­laq Hasan Tal area of Bagh­lan province, which report­ed­ly killed sev­en civil­ians and wound­ed 17 oth­ers. “It is obvi­ous by these acts that the insur­gents do not respect the holy reli­gion of Islam or the peo­ple of Afghanistan,” Allen said. “To con­duct a sense­less attack dur­ing this sacred time on the Islam­ic cal­en­dar is despi­ca­ble. We send our con­do­lences to the vic­tims of today’s heinous event, and to the fam­i­ly and friends also affect­ed by this attack.” 

Allen not­ed that Tal­iban leader Mul­lah Omar issued an Eid mes­sage two days ear­li­er that say­ing civil­ian casu­al­ties are a con­cern and must be min­i­mized. “Appar­ent­ly, when look­ing at today’s sui­cide attack, Tal­iban fight­ers are either unin­formed or don’t care about the spe­cif­ic guid­ance giv­en by their lead­ers to pro­tect inno­cent Afghan civil­ians,” he said. 

The gen­er­al called on Omar to con­demn the attacks publically. 

In Nov. 4 operations: 

–A com­bined force dis­cov­ered 220 pounds of explo­sives and oth­er bomb-mak­ing mate­ri­als dur­ing a rou­tine patrol in Zab­ul province’s Qalat dis­trict. The explo­sives and mate­ri­als were removed by coali­tion forces and no civil­ians were injured dur­ing the operation. 

–In Kandahar’s Mai­wand dis­trict, a com­bined force detained sev­er­al insur­gents and seized a cache of 1,254 pounds of opi­um, which was destroyed on site. The detainees were tak­en in by Afghan forces for pro­cess­ing and fur­ther questioning. 

–A coali­tion secu­ri­ty force dis­cov­ered a cache of unex­plod­ed ordi­nance in the Kun­duz dis­trict of Kun­duz province. The cache con­sist­ed of 20 40mm grenades, 40 30mm can­non cas­ings and one 130mm cas­ing. The items were safe­ly destroyed by the secu­ri­ty force at the scene. 

–Act­ing on a tip by a local nation­al, coali­tion forces dis­cov­ered a weapons cache in the Faiz­abad dis­trict of Badakhshan province. The cache con­sist­ed of 29 rock­et-pro­pelled grenades, which were safe­ly destroyed at the scene. 

–A com­bined force seized a nar­cotics cache dur­ing an oper­a­tion to dis­rupt an insur­gent net­work in Helmand’s Wash­er dis­trict. The force seized 1,430 pounds of opi­um, which was safe­ly destroyed on site. 

–A local nation­al led a coali­tion secu­ri­ty force to a weapons cache in the Kah­mard dis­trict of Bamyan province. The cache con­sist­ed of five 82mm recoil­less rifle rock­ets, six 73mm rock­ets, 13 85mm rock­ets, six oth­er rock­ets, and 400 12.7mm rounds. 

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