Afghanistan — Afghan, Coalition Forces Kill, Detain Insurgents

WASHINGTON, Aug. 17, 2010 — Afghan and coali­tion forces killed or detained numer­ous insur­gents in var­i­ous recent oper­a­tions in Afghanistan, mil­i­tary offi­cials report­ed.

— An Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty force detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents in Nan­garhar province’s Surkh Rod dis­trict last night while pur­su­ing an insur­gent bomb expert who spe­cial­izes in dual-tone, mul­ti­fre­quen­cy devices and is linked to at least two road­side bomb attacks. 

— An Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty force killed six insur­gents and detained sev­er­al more sus­pect­ed insur­gents in Kun­duz province’s Kun­duz dis­trict yes­ter­day while in pur­suit of a for­mer Tal­iban com­man­der linked to the move­ment of for­eign fight­ers and weapons. The com­man­der coor­di­nates logis­ti­cal sup­port and oper­a­tions with the lead­er­ship of Pakistan’s for­eign fight­er cell and for­mer­ly was in charge of the Tal­iban in the Gor Tap­pa region before step­ping into an advi­so­ry role, offi­cials said. As the secu­ri­ty force approached the tar­get­ed com­pounds, a large explo­sion occurred. Soon after, insur­gents began fir­ing their weapons at the assault force from sev­er­al loca­tions. The com­bined ground force returned fire, killing six armed insur­gents. Along with the auto­mat­ic weapons, the assault force also found a rock­et-pro­pelled grenade round near the insurgents. 

— In Log­ar province’s Charkh dis­trict yes­ter­day, an Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty force killed Bilal, a high­ly active Tal­iban facil­i­ta­tor respon­si­ble for attacks against Afghan civil­ians and Afghan and coali­tion forces. He had direct ties to the Tal­iban net­work involved in the kid­nap­ping and mur­ders of two U.S. Navy sailors last month, offi­cials said, though it’s unknown whether Bilal played any role in the crimes. As the secu­ri­ty force approached the tar­get­ed com­pound, Bilal, who was armed with an assault rifle, ran away and tried to hide next to two civil­ian farm­ers. When the secu­ri­ty force caught up with him, he engaged the assault force. They returned fire, killing him. The farm­ers were not injured. After ques­tion­ing all the res­i­dents on scene, the assault force detained a sus­pect­ed insur­gent. The secu­ri­ty force pro­tect­ed women and chil­dren dur­ing the search. 

— An Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty force detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents in Hel­mand province’s Nawah-ye Barakzai dis­trict yes­ter­day in their con­tin­ued pur­suit of a senior Tal­iban com­man­der and mem­ber of the Nawa Mil­i­tary Com­mis­sion who is respon­si­ble for deci­sions involv­ing mil­i­tary oper­a­tions and mat­ters of gov­er­nance with­in the district’s Tal­iban-con­trolled areas. As the com­bined force approached the tar­get­ed com­pounds, sus­pect­ed insur­gents ran from one of the build­ings. The secu­ri­ty force chased them down and detained them peace­ful­ly. After ques­tion­ing res­i­dents, the secu­ri­ty force detained two addi­tion­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents and found two bags of wet opi­um, Tal­iban pro­pa­gan­da tapes and a large knife. The assault force did not fire their weapons, and they pro­tect­ed women and chil­dren through­out the search. 

— In Pak­tia province’s Gardez dis­trict yes­ter­day, an Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty force detained two sus­pect­ed insur­gents, includ­ing a Haqqani ter­ror­ist net­work sub­com­man­der direct­ly involved in bomb­ing attacks and in procur­ing weapons and ammu­ni­tion for fight­ers under his com­mand. The assault force did not fire their weapons, and they pro­tect­ed women and chil­dren through­out the search. 

In oth­er news from Afghanistan, an Afghan child was killed Aug. 15 in Mar­ja when caught in the cross­fire in a bat­tle between coali­tion forces and insur­gents in Hel­mand province. Insur­gents engaged a coali­tion patrol with small-arms fire, and the patrol returned fire after pos­i­tive­ly iden­ti­fy­ing the insur­gents. Fol­low­ing the engage­ment, the force inspect­ed the area for casu­al­ties and dam­age, found none and con­tin­ued with its mission. 

Lat­er, an Afghan civil­ian arrived at a near­by coali­tion base and stat­ed that two chil­dren from his vil­lage were in the same area as the fight­ing. Only one child had returned home, and he asked coali­tion forces to assist in a search to locate the miss­ing child. Coali­tion forces dis­patched a patrol to search for the miss­ing child, who had been in the area to water crops. The child was found dead of gun­shot wounds. 

Offi­cials had two meet­ings with the fam­i­ly, elders and local vil­lagers. The inci­dent remains under investigation. 

An Afghan gov­ern­ment offi­cial and an Afghan police offi­cer were killed by insur­gents in a vil­lage bazaar in Farah province’s Gulis­tan dis­trict yes­ter­day. Accord­ing to reports, two insur­gents on a motor­cy­cle shot and killed the gov­ern­ment offi­cial in the bazaar. The police offi­cer returned fire on the gun­men, but was killed by the insurgents. 

Also, two insur­gents pre­sent­ed them­selves as civil­ian casu­al­ties to Afghan and coali­tion forces in Badghis province fol­low­ing an Aug. 15 engage­ment that result­ed in more than 10 insur­gent casu­al­ties. The two insur­gents were tak­en into cus­tody, and their wounds were treat­ed by ISAF ser­vice­mem­bers. No civil­ians were injured in the engagement. 

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

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