Afghanistan

D Troops in Afghanistan Seize Insur­gents, Drugs, Destroy Weapons

Amer­i­can Forces Press Service 

Afghan and coali­tion troops cap­tured 22 sus­pect­ed insur­gents, seized mas­sive quan­ti­ties of ille­gal nar­cotics and destroyed a weapons cache in Afghanistan over the past two days. 

In Hel­mand province today, Afghan and coali­tion forces detained 11 sus­pect­ed insur­gents, found 1,000 pounds of hero­in and destroyed a large weapons cache. 

In an oper­a­tion to dis­rupt insur­gent activ­i­ty and deny ene­my sanc­tu­ary, Afghan sol­diers with 1st Com­pa­ny, 201st Com­man­do Kan­dak, and coali­tion troops cleared the tar­get com­pound of known Tal­iban mem­bers, mil­i­tary offi­cials said. Dur­ing the raid, the com­bined force dis­cov­ered a lab used for pro­cess­ing hero­in and opi­um, which the Tal­iban sell to gen­er­ate finances for their insurgency. 

Mean­while, coali­tion air­crews saw insur­gents plant­i­ng road­side bombs and estab­lish­ing defen­sive posi­tions. As the air­craft moved clos­er to inves­ti­gate the sus­pect­ed sites, ene­my com­bat­ants fired on them. The air­crews respond­ed with pre­ci­sion fire and elim­i­nat­ed the ene­my posi­tions. The com­bined force also destroyed a large weapons cache. 

Mil­i­tary offi­cials said the suc­cess of this mis­sion con­firms the resolve and abil­i­ty of Afghan nation­al secu­ri­ty forces to rid Afghanistan of insurgents. 

In Zab­ul province yes­ter­day, Afghan and coali­tion forces detained 11 sus­pect­ed insur­gents dur­ing an oper­a­tion to dis­rupt Tal­iban lead­er­ship networks. 

In a raid on com­pounds in the province’s Dey Chopan dis­trict, the com­bined force nabbed the sus­pects for their alleged ties to a Tal­iban leader respon­si­ble for mount­ing sev­er­al attacks against coali­tion forces, mil­i­tary offi­cials said. Troops also dis­cov­ered an AK-47 assault rifle dur­ing the oper­a­tion. The detainees are being held for questioning. 

“Afghan nation­al secu­ri­ty forces found six of the detainees, one of whom was iden­ti­fied as a Tal­iban leader, hid­ing in a con­cealed room in a mosque on the com­pound,” said Army Maj. Chris Belch­er, a coali­tion forces spokesman. 

Belch­er not­ed that coali­tion troops adhered to cul­tur­al sen­si­tiv­i­ties by not enter­ing the mosque. 

“Afghan and coali­tion forces are tak­ing deci­sive, delib­er­ate mea­sures to inhib­it the effec­tive­ness of Tal­iban lead­er­ship net­works,” he added. 

(Com­piled from Com­bined Joint Task Force 82 news releases.) 

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs)