Afghan-led Force Finds Enemy Mortars in Kandahar

WASHINGTON, July 18, 2011 — An Afghan-led com­bined secu­ri­ty force in the Kan­da­har dis­trict of Afghanistan’s Kan­da­har province today found and destroyed a cache of 103 mor­tar rounds, mil­i­tary offi­cials report­ed.

In oper­a­tions through­out Afghanistan yesterday: 

– An Afghan-led com­bined force detained numer­ous sus­pect­ed insur­gents and con­fis­cat­ed grenades, an assault rifle with sev­er­al mag­a­zines, a rifle and a chest rack yes­ter­day while search­ing for a Haqqani ter­ror­ist net­work leader in Khost province’s Ter­ayzai dis­trict who is respon­si­ble for coor­di­nat­ing attacks against the Afghan army. 

— An Afghan-led force detained a sus­pect­ed insur­gent in Takhar province’s Ban­gi dis­trict while search­ing for an Islam­ic Move­ment of Uzbek­istan leader who directs insur­gents and is a liai­son to the Tal­iban net­work, oth­er insur­gent lead­ers in Pak­istan and IMU con­tacts in Afghanistan and Iran. 

– In Balkh province’s Chim­tal dis­trict, an Afghan-led force detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents while search­ing for a Tal­iban leader who obtains sup­plies and col­lects tax­es to pay for Tal­iban oper­a­tions in the province’s west­ern region. 

– In Kan­da­har province’s Pan­jwai dis­trict, an Afghan-led force detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents while search­ing for a Tal­iban leader who leads road­side-bomb attacks and moves bomb-mak­ing mate­ri­als in east­ern Panjwai. 

– Also in Pan­jwai, a com­bined force detained a sus­pect­ed insur­gent dur­ing a clear­ance operation. 

– An Afghan-led force cap­tured a Tal­iban leader and two oth­er sus­pect­ed insur­gents in Zab­ul province’s Shah Joy dis­trict. The leader coor­di­nates attacks against Afghan and coali­tion forces. 

– In Hel­mand province’s Nahr‑e Saraj dis­trict, a com­bined force detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents while look­ing for a Tal­iban leader who directs attacks in the dis­trict and pro­vides shel­ter, food, equip­ment and guid­ance to Tal­iban fighters. 

– An Afghan-led force detained two sus­pect­ed insur­gents while search­ing for a Tal­iban orga­niz­er in Pak­ti­ka province’s Zur­mat dis­trict. The leader advis­es insur­gents in the province’s Mata Khan district. 

– A Haqqani net­work leader and two of his asso­ciates were detained dur­ing an overnight oper­a­tion in Khost province’s Sabari dis­trict. The Haqqani leader coor­di­nat­ed road­side-bomb and direct-fire attacks against the Afghan army. 

In July 16 operations: 

– An Afghan-led secu­ri­ty force killed more than 10 insur­gents and detained a sus­pect­ed insur­gent in an intel­li­gence-dri­ven search for a Tal­iban leader and his net­work in Nan­garhar province’s Kuz Kunar dis­trict. The leader con­ducts attacks against Afghan gov­ern­ment offi­cials and secu­ri­ty forces, and works as an orga­niz­er in the dis­trict. When the force began assess­ing the tar­get­ed build­ing, insur­gents fired on them with machine guns, rock­et-pro­pelled grenades and assault rifles. The force returned fire, killing sev­er­al insur­gents. The Afghan-led force, using native lan­guages, called for remain­ing insur­gents to come out peace­ful­ly, but they con­tin­ued their assault. The secu­ri­ty force called in an air strike, which killed sev­er­al more insur­gents and destroyed the building. 

– An Afghan-led force detained two sus­pect­ed insur­gents in Takhar province’s Talo­qan dis­trict, while search­ing for an Islam­ic Move­ment of Uzbek­istan orga­niz­er who coor­di­nates sui­cide attacks and report­ed­ly was plan­ning immi­nent attacks. 

– In Hel­mand province’s Nahr‑e Saraj dis­trict, an Afghan-led force detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents while look­ing for a Tal­iban leader who takes part in road­side-bomb and small-arms attacks against Afghan forces. 

– A coali­tion patrol found two mor­tars, 109 mor­tar rounds, 20 rock­et-pro­pelled grenades, 23 antiper­son­nel mines, an anti­tank mine, 32 grenades, 30 fus­es and sev­er­al meters of det­o­na­tion cord in Khost province’s Tanai district. 

– In Log­ar province’s Muham­mad Aghah dis­trict, a coali­tion patrol found about 1,200 pounds of potas­si­um chlo­ride and a jug filled with 40 pounds of home­made explosives. 

– An Afghan-led force in Khost province’s Sabari dis­trict cap­tured a Haqqani net­work orga­niz­er and two of his asso­ciates. The orga­niz­er moved Haqqani fight­ers and finances, and had com­mu­ni­ca­tion ties with Haqqani mem­bers in Miri­am Shah, Pakistan. 

In July 15 operations: 

– An air weapons team killed two insur­gents when they posed a threat to a com­bined patrol that was tar­get­ing a drug lab in Hel­mand province’s Baghran dis­trict. The lab yield­ed 2,205 pounds of cal­ci­um oxide, three opi­um press­es, two dry­ing vats and nar­cotics-pro­duc­tion equipment. 

– An Afghan-led force killed two insur­gents, includ­ing a Tal­iban leader, in Balkh province’s Cha­har Bolak dis­trict. The three were killed after they fired on the com­bined force. The Tal­iban leader was respon­si­ble for road­side-bomb and small-arms attacks against Afghan forces and orga­nized road­side-bomb attacks in the Chim­tal and Cha­har Bolak dis­tricts. The force con­fis­cat­ed grenades, assault rifles, bomb com­po­nents and chest racks. 

– In Nan­garhar province’s Surkh Rod dis­trict, an Afghan-led force detained numer­ous sus­pect­ed insur­gents while search­ing for a Tal­iban leader who directs road­side-bomb and direct-fire attacks against Afghan forces and pro­vides insur­gents with weapons through­out the province’s Khugyani district. 

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