Intelligence, Tips Drive Operations in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON, Sept. 17, 2010 — Intel­li­gence infor­ma­tion and tips from local Afghans have dri­ven sev­er­al recent oper­a­tions in Afghanistan, mil­i­tary offi­cials report­ed.

Mul­ti­ple intel­li­gence sources and tips led a part­nered Afghan and coali­tion patrol to a want­ed insur­gent, who then led the force to two oth­er tar­gets in Kab­ul province yesterday.

The man was want­ed for ties to an insur­gent logis­tics net­work active in Kab­ul and Par­wan provinces, offi­cials said. 

Act­ing on an Afghan war­rant, the force moved to the tar­get­ed com­pound and detained the sus­pect­ed insur­gent, who test­ed pos­i­tive for han­dling explo­sives. In the same com­pound, the force found five bags of ammo­ni­um nitrate — a com­mon ingre­di­ent in home­made explo­sives — weigh­ing more than 100 pounds each. 

Dur­ing ques­tion­ing, the man helped to point the force toward a sus­pect at a sep­a­rate loca­tion. The patrol moved to the new loca­tion, and as they pre­pared to enter the com­pound, a man ran out of the build­ing. He was cap­tured and iden­ti­fied as one of the tar­gets. The oth­er tar­get was found dur­ing a search of the build­ing. Both test­ed pos­i­tive for han­dling explosives. 

–Also yes­ter­day, a part­nered patrol act­ing on infor­ma­tion from mul­ti­ple intel­li­gence sources and tips went to the loca­tion of a known road­side-bomb facil­i­ta­tor near Kakarak in Uruz­gan province. 

The Afghan and coali­tion forces secured the sus­pect­ed insur­gent com­pound peace­ful­ly and detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents. They found bomb ini­tia­tors and almost 90 pounds of explosives. 

Though the tar­get­ed facil­i­ta­tor was not at the loca­tion, offi­cials said, indi­ca­tors led the Afghan and coali­tion force to con­clude he was near­by. The force moved to where he was believed to be and secured the com­pound. They detained him and received infor­ma­tion on a near­by weapons cache. 

The part­nered force found small-arms weapons and bomb-mak­ing mate­ri­als, includ­ing 26 anti-per­son­nel mines, numer­ous pres­sure-plate ini­tia­tors, plas­tic explo­sives, rock­et-pro­pelled grenades, artillery shells, grenades and blast­ing caps. 

Upon leav­ing the cache site, the force received small-arms fire from two insur­gents a few hun­dred yards away. They returned fire and the insur­gents with­drew. The forces left the area with­out fur­ther incident. 

In the Moham­mad Agha dis­trict of Log­ar province today, a part­nered patrol arrest­ed a known insur­gent bomb mak­er and an asso­ciate based on infor­ma­tion from mul­ti­ple intel­li­gence sources and tips. 

In oth­er news from Afghanistan, an insur­gent died when a road­side bomb he was plant­i­ng explod­ed in east­ern Afghanistan today. An explo­sive ord­nance dis­pos­al team sent to the site in the Ghazni dis­trict of Ghazni province recov­ered three unex­plod­ed bombs. 

Mean­while, an Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty force con­duct­ed a mul­ti-day clear­ing oper­a­tion aimed at dis­rupt­ing the Taliban’s free­dom of move­ment out­side Kan­da­har City, killing three insur­gents and detain­ing sev­er­al more. 

One of the cap­tured insur­gents was a Tal­iban weapons and bomb facil­i­ta­tor who acquires and dis­trib­utes mines, weapons, ammu­ni­tion, and bomb com­po­nents to Tal­iban com­man­ders oper­at­ing in the city. Afghan and coali­tion forces already had detained sev­er­al mem­bers of his net­work over the summer. 

The secu­ri­ty forces con­tin­ued their effort to dis­rupt ene­my safe havens in Kan­da­har province, this time tar­get­ing an area south of Tabin‑e Olya in Arghandab dis­trict, an area plagued by road­side bombs and pop­u­lat­ed by insur­gents. Intel­li­gence reports allowed the secu­ri­ty force to focus on sev­er­al com­pounds in the area, which is known as an ene­my stag­ing area for attacks into Kan­da­har City. 

At one of the com­pounds, a known Tal­iban weapons facil­i­ta­tor iden­ti­fied him­self and was detained along with two oth­er insurgents. 

Dur­ing the oper­a­tion, armed insur­gents engaged the secu­ri­ty force with small-arms and mor­tar fire. The secu­ri­ty force returned fire from the ground and from coali­tion air­craft, killing three insurgents. 

The Tal­iban uses intim­i­da­tion and threats to force their way into areas out­side Kan­da­har City to stage their attacks, offi­cials said, adding that Afghan and coali­tion forces are focus­ing on clear­ing known safe havens around the city and deny­ing the insur­gents use of these areas. 

In Khost province overnight, Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty forces detained two insur­gents, includ­ing a Haqqani ter­ror­ist net­work com­man­der who was active­ly plan­ning attacks for tomorrow’s par­lia­men­tary elections. 

The com­man­der coor­di­nat­ed and con­duct­ed attacks against Afghan civil­ians and Afghan and coali­tion forces, offi­cials said, and also engaged in pro­pa­gan­da cam­paigns from a local reli­gious school. 

In Hel­mand province yes­ter­day, infor­ma­tion from mul­ti­ple intel­li­gence sources and tips led Afghan and coali­tion forces to a Tal­iban safe house east of San­gin, where they detained a key Tal­iban com­man­der and an associate. 

The Tal­iban com­man­der is a known key insur­gent facil­i­ta­tor in Hel­mand and sur­round­ing provinces, offi­cials said. He con­trols mul­ti­ple Tal­iban facil­i­ta­tion net­works with links to Pak­istan that are respon­si­ble for insur­gent financ­ing, dis­tri­b­u­tion of road­side bombs and their com­po­nents, facil­i­tat­ing for­eign fight­ers, and weapons and nar­cotics trafficking. 

Part­nered Afghan and coali­tion forces pro­tect any women and chil­dren present dur­ing all of their search­es, offi­cials said. 

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

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