Forces Kill Insurgents in Paktia Province

WASHINGTON, May 4, 2011 — Com­bined forces killed numer­ous armed insur­gents and wound­ed anoth­er in a gun bat­tle yes­ter­day in the Zur­mat dis­trict of Afghanistan’s Pak­tia province, mil­i­tary offi­cials report­ed.
Troops were search­ing for a Haqqani ter­ror­ist net­work leader they believe is plan­ning to assas­si­nate the Pak­tia provin­cial gov­er­nor, offi­cials said.

Forces were sur­round­ing a com­pound where they believed their tar­get to be when numer­ous armed gun­men fired on them with machine guns and rock­et-pro­pelled grenades. Troops returned fire until their attack­ers ceased fire, but called in an airstrike after the insur­gents opened fire again, which is the pro­to­col under Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force guide­lines, offi­cials explained. 

The engage­ment result­ed in numer­ous insur­gents killed and anoth­er wound­ed. Eight civil­ians were injured and anoth­er was killed in the airstrike. The wound­ed were treat­ed on site then trans­port­ed to a near­by med­ical facil­i­ty, offi­cials said. 

In oth­er oper­a­tions yes­ter­day through­out Afghanistan: 

— Afghan and coali­tion forces killed numer­ous armed mil­i­tants in a fire­fight while search­ing for a Tal­iban leader in Nan­garhar province’s Cha­parhar dis­trict. Troops also detained a sus­pect­ed insurgent. 

— In Ghazni province’s Gelan dis­trict, troops killed an armed insur­gent and detained sev­er­al oth­ers after an air weapons team watched the mil­i­tants set up an ambush. The air weapons team engaged the insur­gents, dis­rupt­ing their oper­a­tion. Troops seized four assault rifles and sev­er­al grenade launch­ers after assess­ing the airstrike. 

— Forces cap­tured more than 10 sus­pect­ed insur­gents while search­ing for a Tal­iban leader who is a for­mer dis­trict leader in Kandahar’s Pan­jwai district. 

— Secu­ri­ty forces detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents while search­ing for a deputy Tal­iban leader in Bagh­lan province’s Dahanah-ye Ghori district. 

— Com­bined forces in Log­ar province’s Bara­ki Barak dis­trict detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents alleged­ly con­nect­ed to a senior Tal­iban leader who oper­ates in the area. — In Khost province’s Sabari dis­trict, troops detained two sus­pect­ed insur­gents while search­ing for a Haqqani net­work ter­ror­ist respon­si­ble for coor­di­nat­ing bomb­ing attacks and bomb making. 

In oper­a­tions May 2: 

— Secu­ri­ty forces killed sev­er­al insur­gents and detained sev­er­al oth­ers in Hel­mand province’s Nad‑e Ali dis­trict after a group of mil­i­tants attempt­ed to ambush their patrol. 

— Forces found two weapons stock­piles. In Kan­da­har province’s Arghanadab dis­trict, troops dis­cov­ered 53 rock­et-pro­pelled grenades and 10 rock­et-pro­pelled grenade boost­ers. In War­dak province’s Nerkh dis­trict, secu­ri­ty forces found 31 pounds of plas­tic explo­sives, sev­en land mines, five rock­et-pro­pelled grenades, a grenade and assort­ed bomb-mak­ing materials. 

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

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