Afghanistan — Afghan, International Forces Capture, Kill Militants

WASHINGTON, April 5, 2010 — Afghan and inter­na­tion­al forces killed 10 mil­i­tants and detained sev­er­al oth­ers in recent oper­a­tions through­out Afghanistan, and coali­tion forces found and destroyed sev­er­al stock­piles of weapons, mil­i­tary offi­cials report­ed. Coali­tion forces killed 10 mil­i­tants and wound­ed anoth­er dur­ing a gun bat­tle last night in Nan­garhar province’s Khugyani dis­trict. The com­bined force respond­ed to intel­li­gence of mil­i­tant activ­i­ty in the area, and was fired on instant­ly. The force returned fire and killed two ene­my fight­ers. The troops then called for any remain­ing mil­i­tants to come out of hid­ing. After a peri­od of no response, mil­i­tants opened fire again. Eight more mil­i­tants even­tu­al­ly were killed, and anoth­er was wound­ed. The wound­ed mil­i­tant was treat­ed and trans­port­ed to a coali­tion hospital. 

In oth­er oper­a­tions yes­ter­day:

— Afghan forces detained two sus­pect­ed mil­i­tants east of Mar­ja in Hel­mand province. 

— In Khost province, a com­bined force cap­tured a Haqqani ter­ror­ist net­work facil­i­ta­tor respon­si­ble for bomb­ing attacks on inter­na­tion­al forces and Afghan bor­der police. The facil­i­ta­tor sur­ren­dered to the joint force with­out inci­dent and admit­ted his con­nec­tion to sev­er­al bomb­ing net­works in the area. 

— Afghan and inter­na­tion­al forces cap­tured anoth­er alleged Haqqani facil­i­ta­tor and anoth­er sus­pect­ed mil­i­tant in Pak­tia province. The alleged Haqqani facil­i­ta­tor is believed to respon­si­ble for traf­fick­ing and pur­chas­ing weapons for ene­my fight­ers in the region. 

— Sev­er­al sus­pect­ed mil­i­tants were detained south of Kan­da­har City by Afghan and inter­na­tion­al forces in pur­suit of a Tal­iban bomb facilitator. 

— A weapons stock­pile was dis­cov­ered in Hel­mand province after a tip from a local civil­ian iden­ti­fied a mil­i­tant hide­out. The weapons includ­ed 300 machine-gun rounds and parts of a grenade launch­er and rifle. 

— An Afghan patrol in Uruz­gan province’s Chorah dis­trict net­ted a cache of rock­et-pro­pelled grenades and eight mor­tar rounds. 

In oper­a­tions April 3:

— NATO forces detained sev­er­al peo­ple sus­pect­ed of mak­ing and plant­i­ng road­side bombs after they tried to avoid a secu­ri­ty check­point in Hel­mand province. Each sus­pect was found with large amounts of cash and cell phones, offi­cials said. 

— In Hel­mand province’s Nad-e-Ali dis­trict, Afghan and inter­na­tion­al forces cap­tured two sus­pect­ed mil­i­tants while in pur­suit of a Tal­iban leader in the area. Anoth­er oper­a­tion in the area net­ted a weapons cache that con­sist­ed of a grenade launch­er, more than 300 pounds of explo­sives and oth­er bomb-mak­ing mate­ri­als. A third stock­pile yield­ed 300 machine-gun rounds and 98 anti-air­craft rounds. 

— Anoth­er weapons stock­pile was found in Farah province dur­ing a coali­tion patrol. More than 60 pounds of ammo­ni­um nitrate, six mor­tar rounds, an anti-per­son­nel mine and oth­er bomb-mak­ing mate­ri­als were found and tak­en to a near­by coali­tion outpost. 

In oth­er news from Afghanistan, an Army Spe­cial Forces patrol was struck by a road­side bomb April 2 in Hel­mand province. The troops dis­mount­ed their vehi­cles and found and dis­man­tled five more road­side bombs. No civil­ian or mil­i­tary injuries were report­ed, offi­cials said. 

Also in Hel­mand province April 2, an Afghan police chief in Gereskh arrest­ed sev­er­al indi­vid­u­als believed to be con­nect­ed to a bomb­ing cell respon­si­ble for attacks that wound­ed three Spe­cial Forces sol­diers the pre­vi­ous day. 

The Afghan-police-led oper­a­tion took place with­out inci­dent, offi­cials said. 

(Com­piled from Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force Joint Com­mand news releases.) 

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