Afghanistan — Afghan, International Forces Kill, Capture Insurgents

WASHINGTON — Afghan and inter­na­tion­al forces killed a Tal­iban com­man­der and oth­er insur­gents in Afghanistan’s west­ern province of Farah, mil­i­tary offi­cials report­ed.

Coali­tion forces killed the com­man­der and sev­er­al oth­er insur­gents dur­ing an oper­a­tion in the west­ern province of Farah in the past two days. Air­craft engaged insur­gents with pre­ci­sion air strikes, killing sev­er­al, in a rur­al area of Gulis­tan dis­trict after the forces observed armed men mov­ing through a known insur­gent safe haven. 

The com­man­der, Mul­lah Akhtar, had close ties with Tal­iban and al-Qai­da senior lead­ers. He was believed respon­si­ble for train­ing insur­gent fight­ers from Iran and helped resolve dis­putes between mil­i­tant networks. 

A coali­tion search team lat­er approached the strike area and encoun­tered sev­er­al heav­i­ly armed insur­gents in a cave. The insur­gents were engaged and killed in the ensu­ing fire­fight. The search team found rock­et-pro­pelled grenade launch­ers with RPG rounds, heavy machine guns, auto­mat­ic rifles and ammunition. 

In oth­er coali­tion oper­a­tions in Afghanistan, a com­bined secu­ri­ty force detained a sus­pect­ed insur­gent in Kan­da­har province today. 

The com­bined force went to a com­pound in west­ern Kan­da­har City, after intel­li­gence indi­cat­ed insur­gent activ­i­ty there. The force detained the sus­pect for fur­ther ques­tion­ing. No shots were fired and no one was harmed dur­ing the operation. 

Yes­ter­day, Afghan sol­diers, sup­port­ed by inter­na­tion­al troops, dis­cov­ered a weapons cache in Tarin Kot, Uruz­gan province. The cache con­tained 88 grenades, eight con­tain­ers of grenade fus­es, three rock­et-pro­pelled grenade fuel cells, three 82 mm mor­tars and sev­en elec­tron­ic det­o­na­tors. The mor­tars were destroyed and the grenades were removed for fur­ther investigation. 

In oth­er Afghanistan oper­a­tions yesterday: 

A com­bined force cap­tured a Haqqani net­work impro­vised explo­sive device cell leader and sev­er­al oth­er insur­gents in Khost province. The com­bined force went to a com­pound north of Meh­di Kheyl after insur­gents were seen implant­i­ng IEDs near­by. The assault force cap­tured the tar­get­ed man and oth­er insur­gents while search­ing the buildings. 

The Haqqani leader is believed respon­si­ble for emplac­ing IEDs, acquir­ing and dis­trib­ut­ing weapons, and coor­di­nat­ing sui­cide bomb­ings. No shots were fired and no one was harmed dur­ing the operation. 

Anoth­er com­bined force killed and cap­tured a num­ber of insur­gents while pur­su­ing a Tal­iban IED cell com­man­der in Log­ar province. The force moved in on a com­pound in Naw­shad, Charkh dis­trict, after intel­li­gence indi­cat­ed insur­gent activ­i­ty there. As the assault force approached the com­pound, they received hos­tile fire. While clear­ing the com­pound, sev­er­al insur­gents were killed or cap­tured. The com­bined secu­ri­ty team found a machine gun, mul­ti­ple auto­mat­ic rifles, grenades and ammunition. 

In oth­er Afghanistan news, more than 260 new Afghan nation­al secu­ri­ty force mem­bers, trained in west­ern Afghanistan, joined their oper­a­tional units June 4. In Adraskan, 241 offi­cers of the Afghan Nation­al Civ­il Order Police grad­u­at­ed from the NATO Region­al Train­ing Cen­tre oper­at­ed by the Cara­binieri, Italy’s fed­er­al police force. 

Dur­ing train­ing, which last­ed 14 weeks, par­tic­i­pants were taught basic police skills and tech­niques, to includ­ing counter-IED train­ing, first aid, weapons use and dri­ving, and anti-riot and urban com­bat training. 

The cen­tre has con­duct­ed 30 train­ing cours­es, attend­ed by near­ly 4,000 par­tic­i­pants, since Novem­ber. Also on June 4, 24 mem­bers of the Afghan Bor­der Police were grad­u­at­ed from the Advanced Patrol­man Tac­tics Course. The course was live-fire inten­sive and con­sist­ed of advanced tac­tics, law and police pro­ce­dures and driver’s training. 

Source:
From an Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force Joint Com­mand News Release