Afghan-ISAF Forces Discover Weapons Cache in Uruzgan

KABUL, Afghanistan (June 28) — An Afghan-inter­na­tion­al secu­ri­ty force killed sev­er­al insur­gents, includ­ing a Haqqani net­work impro­vised explo­sive device (IED) cell leader, with a pre­ci­sion airstrike while they placed an IED in Khost Province last night.

After inter­na­tion­al forces con­firmed insur­gent activ­i­ty and no civil­ians were at risk, they called for the airstrike as the cell was emplac­ing the IED on a main route in Matun district. 

Fol­low­ing the airstrike, an Afghan and inter­na­tion­al ground force went to the site north of Badi Kheyl in Khost dis­trict to inspect the area. The secu­ri­ty force found mul­ti­ple IEDs and weapons at the site as well as the IED cell leader, Satar, and sev­er­al mem­bers of his cell killed by the pre­ci­sion strike. Satar and his cell are linked to mul­ti­ple IED attacks against Afghan and inter­na­tion­al forces. 

Afghan and coali­tion forces con­tin­ue to make progress in their on-going efforts to rid the province of the Haqqani net­work. They cap­tured anoth­er Haqqani IED facil­i­ta­tor in the province yes­ter­day, in an area that has seen 13 IEDs det­o­nat­ed or found this year. 

In Log­ar Province last night, an Afghan and inter­na­tion­al secu­ri­ty force cap­tured a Tal­iban facil­i­ta­tor who active­ly par­tic­i­pat­ed in IED attacks through­out Bara­ki Barak dis­trict. The facil­i­ta­tor is also linked to mor­tar attacks against For­ward Oper­at­ing Base Shank locat­ed approx­i­mate­ly ten kilo­me­ters from where he was captured. 

The secu­ri­ty force went to a series of com­pounds near Akhvond Kheyl in Pul‑e ‘Alam dis­trict to search the area. Afghan forces used a loud­speak­er to call for all indi­vid­u­als to come out­side and then cleared the com­pounds, detain­ing the facilitator. 

No shots were fired and women and chil­dren were pro­tect­ed by the com­bined secu­ri­ty force through­out the search. 

Afghan Nation­al Secu­ri­ty Forces (ANSF) along with ISAF part­ners res­cued two Afghan Nation­al Police offi­cers yes­ter­day, who had been held hostage for almost one week in Ghazni Province yes­ter­day. As the com­bined force approached the com­pound where the offi­cers were being held, sev­er­al insur­gents were observed flee­ing from the com­pound. The com­bined force res­cued both offi­cers with­out fir­ing a shot. 

In oth­er oper­a­tions, ANSF patrols dis­cov­ered numer­ous weapons caches. A large cache was found yes­ter­day dur­ing a search of a com­pound in Kandahar. 

The cache con­tained 13 impro­vised explo­sive devices, four kilo­grams of explo­sive mate­r­i­al, five artillery rounds and more than 1,700 rounds of small-arms ammunition. 

On Sat­ur­day, an ANSF-led com­bined force con­duct­ed a com­pound search in Khas Uruz­gan dis­trict of Uruz­gan. A weapons cache, which includ­ed 190 rock­et-pro­pelled grenade boost­ers; 81 rock­et-pro­pelled grenade rounds; 30 cas­es of machine gun ammu­ni­tion; 20 hand grenade fus­es; 15 hand grenades; 14 82mm recoil­less rifle rounds; one machine gun with 10 replace­ment bar­rels and one flare gun was seized by the com­bined force. 

In a sep­a­rate oper­a­tion Fri­day in the Pan­jwa’i dis­trict of Kan­da­har Province, anoth­er ANSF-led com­bined force dis­cov­ered 227 kilo­grams of hashish dur­ing the search of a compound. 

Press release
Com­piled from Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force Joint Com­mand News Releases