Numerous Insurgents Die in Afghanistan Operations

WASHINGTON, Jan. 25, 2011 — Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force troops killed numer­ous insur­gents dur­ing sep­a­rate clear­ing oper­a­tions in south­ern and east­ern Afghanistan over the past 24 hours, mil­i­tary offi­cials report­ed.

In Hel­mand province’s Musa Qalah dis­trict insur­gents engaged two ISAF patrols with small-arms fire and rock­et-pro­pelled grenades. After gain­ing pos­i­tive iden­ti­fi­ca­tion, coali­tion forces returned fire and called for air sup­port. An air weapons team sup­port­ing ground forces engaged the ene­my posi­tion, killing sev­er­al insurgents. 

An ISAF patrol killed two armed insur­gents mov­ing toward a fight­ing posi­tion used in the past in Khan­dar province’s Zharay district. 

Also today, an ISAF patrol in Kunar province’s Nur­gal dis­trict came under fire from sev­er­al insur­gents. Coali­tion forces returned mor­tar fire on the ene­my posi­tion, killing some insur­gents and dis­pers­ing the others. 

Afghan secu­ri­ty forces and ISAF troops also dis­cov­ered sev­er­al caches in south­ern Afghanistan. 

In Hel­mand, Kan­da­har and Uruz­gan provinces, Afghan secu­ri­ty forces and ISAF patrols found three assault rifles, a rock­et-pro­pelled grenade, an 82 mm round, a 20 mm recoil­less rifle round, an anti-per­son­nel mine, two hand grenades, and bomb-mak­ing com­po­nents and chemicals. 

In oper­a­tions yesterday: 

— A com­bined Afghan and ISAF patrol seek­ing a Tal­iban sui­cide-bomb facil­i­ta­tor killed sev­er­al insur­gents and found weapons in Helmand’s Lashkar Gah dis­trict. The patrol was threat­ened by sev­er­al insur­gents while attempt­ing to clear build­ings in the tar­get­ed com­pound, and shot and killed them. The patrol found three assault rifles and asso­ci­at­ed ammu­ni­tion at the scene and detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insurgents. 

— Afghan and coali­tion forces act­ing on intel­li­gence reports killed Abdul Wahab, a Tal­iban attack facil­i­ta­tor, along with anoth­er armed insur­gent, and detained sev­er­al oth­er sus­pect­ed insur­gents in Nim­roz province’s Khash Rod dis­trict. Abdul Wahab was respon­si­ble for the move­ment of muni­tions and bomb-mak­ing mate­ri­als in north­ern Nim­roz and facil­i­tat­ed the move­ment of mate­ri­als to Tal­iban asso­ciates in Kan­da­har province, offi­cials said. The secu­ri­ty force recov­ered mul­ti­ple assault rifles, chest racks, ammu­ni­tion and 400 pounds of bomb-mak­ing materials. 

— In War­dak province’s Sayyid­abad dis­trict, Afghan and coali­tion forces detained a Tal­iban leader and bomb man­u­fac­tur­er. The secu­ri­ty force found a bomb-mak­ing man­u­al, parts and test­ing equip­ment, as well as mil­i­tary uni­forms, at the scene. 

— Afghan and coali­tion forces detained a Tal­iban weapons facil­i­ta­tor for Toto vil­lage in Nan­garhar province’s Sherzad dis­trict. The Tal­iban facil­i­ta­tor was respon­si­ble for sup­ply­ing weapons for attacks on Afghan and coali­tion forces in Sherzad and Khugyani dis­tricts under the guid­ance of the Sherzad dis­trict Tal­iban shad­ow gov­er­nor and Nan­garhar province’s Tal­iban shad­ow gov­er­nor, offi­cials said. 

— Coali­tion forces detained a Haqqani ter­ror­ist net­work facil­i­ta­tor at an Afghan Bor­der Patrol check­point in Pak­ti­ka province. The facil­i­ta­tor oper­at­ed in the Orgun area of War­dak province and was respon­si­ble for the move­ment of sup­plies, road­side bombs and vehi­cle-borne bombs, offi­cials said. 

— Two insur­gents were killed when a coali­tion airstrike tar­get­ed a group of armed insur­gents in Ghazni province’s Gelan dis­trict. A senior Tal­iban dis­trict leader report­ed­ly among the armed insur­gents is respon­si­ble for attacks on coali­tion forces and the provin­cial recon­struc­tion team, offi­cials said. An Afghan and coali­tion fol­low-on force con­duct­ed a ground assess­ment ver­i­fy­ing that two insur­gents were killed. Items found includ­ed an assault rifle, chest racks, ammu­ni­tion, and bomb-mak­ing mate­ri­als. The secu­ri­ty force then went to a weapons stor­age facil­i­ty where the armed insur­gents were seen ear­li­er in the day and found a recoil­less rifle with 10 rounds, four RPG rounds, and oth­er weapons. A kinet­ic strike was con­duct­ed on the weapons stor­age facil­i­ty after all women and chil­dren were removed from the imme­di­ate area. A sep­a­rate com­bined force fol­lowed leads to a com­pound where the armed insur­gents also were seen ear­li­er in the day and detained a sus­pect­ed insur­gent. ISAF offi­cials are gath­er­ing infor­ma­tion to con­firm whether the senior leader was among the insur­gents killed in the strike. 

— Afghan and coali­tion forces killed Hafiz, a Tal­iban leader, along with sev­er­al oth­er armed com­bat­ants, and detained sev­er­al com­bat­ants in Takhar province’s Khwa­jah Ghar dis­trict. Hafiz was from Dar­qad dis­trict and led attacks against Afghan vil­lage secu­ri­ty forces, offi­cials said, and assist­ed Pak­istan-based Tal­iban facil­i­ta­tors by mov­ing mon­ey, weapons, ammu­ni­tion and fight­ers from Kun­duz province to Takhar province. He also was close­ly asso­ci­at­ed with the Tal­iban provin­cial and dis­trict shad­ow gov­er­nors and had ties with an al-Qai­da facil­i­ta­tor, offi­cials added. After mul­ti­ple intel­li­gence sources led the com­bined force to the tar­get­ed build­ing, armed com­bat­ants engaged them with rock­et-pro­pelled grenades and small-arms fire. The secu­ri­ty force returned fire, killing Hafiz and sev­er­al armed com­bat­ants. After the build­ing was secure, the com­bined force detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed com­bat­ants and recov­ered mul­ti­ple RPGs and launch­ers, numer­ous assault rifles and ammu­ni­tion from the scene. 

— In Faryab province’s Gor­ma­ch dis­trict, intel­li­gence reports led a part­nered Afghan and coali­tion force to a com­pound where Tal­iban lead­ers con­duct­ed oper­a­tional plan­ning and facil­i­tat­ed attacks against Afghan and coali­tion forces. As the force approached the com­pound, armed com­bat­ants shot at them with machine guns, rock­et-pro­pelled grenades and small arms. The secu­ri­ty force returned fire, and the armed com­bat­ants fled. The secu­ri­ty force pur­sued them, and the ene­my fight­ers again fired at them. The secu­ri­ty force returned fire, killing sev­er­al armed com­bat­ants. After the com­pound was secure, secu­ri­ty forces dis­cov­ered that an Afghan man, a woman and two chil­dren were wound­ed dur­ing the engage­ment. A coali­tion med­ical tech­ni­cian pro­vid­ed med­ical atten­tion and trans­port­ed the man to a coali­tion med­ical facil­i­ty. One of the chil­dren died at the scene, and the woman and sec­ond child were treat­ed and released. Secu­ri­ty forces recov­ered a machine gun, mul­ti­ple assault rifles, a chest rack and ammu­ni­tion from where the armed com­bat­ants were killed and met with local offi­cials to explain the pur­pose of the mission. 

In Jan. 23 operations: 

— A com­bined Afghan and ISAF vehi­cle-inter­dic­tion oper­a­tion tar­get­ed insur­gent smug­gling routes in Kan­da­har and Hel­mand provinces. Sev­er­al insur­gents were killed, and large quan­ti­ties of weapons and nar­cotics were found. Act­ing on mul­ti­ple intel­li­gence reports and tips from local res­i­dents, mem­bers of the patrol saw a sus­pi­cious vehi­cle parked out­side of a small com­pound. As the patrol moved to search the vehi­cle and com­pound, they were engaged by two armed men. The patrol returned fire, killing them. As the patrol moved fur­ther into the com­pound, they shot and killed anoth­er man who tried to engage them. The patrol found and destroyed two assault rifles, asso­ci­at­ed ammu­ni­tion, 60 pounds of pure hero­in, 52 pounds of brown hero­in and 1,895 pounds of wet opium. 

— In Hel­mand province’s San­gin dis­trict, sev­er­al insur­gents tried to enter an ISAF obser­va­tion post. After ver­bal warn­ings, coali­tion forces killed one insurgent. 

— Also in Hel­mand, insur­gents engaged Afghan and ISAF patrols with small-arms fire in the Mar­ja and Nahr‑e Saraj dis­tricts. Coali­tion forces returned fire and called for air sup­port. An air weapons team sup­port­ing ground forces engaged the ene­my posi­tions, killing sev­er­al insur­gents and dis­pers­ing the others. 

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

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