Afghanistan — Afghan, International Troops Capture Taliban Commander

WASHINGTON, April 6, 2010 — Afghan and inter­na­tion­al forces last night cap­tured sev­er­al insur­gents in Afghanistan, includ­ing a Tal­iban com­man­der sus­pect­ed in sev­er­al attacks against coali­tion forces, mil­i­tary offi­cials said. A com­bined Afghan-inter­na­tion­al force cap­tured the com­man­der dur­ing a search of a com­pound south­west of Kan­da­har City after intel­li­gence indi­cat­ed mil­i­tant activ­i­ty there. The man is sus­pect­ed in a prison attack and assaults on coali­tion forces, and is believed to be part of the Taliban’s media efforts. 

Com­bined forces cap­tured sev­er­al oth­er mil­i­tants dur­ing that search and oth­ers around the coun­try last night. 

In the Nad‑e Ali dis­trict of Hel­mand province, a com­bined force searched a series of com­pounds and detained sev­er­al mil­i­tants for fur­ther questioning. 

In Khost, a com­bined force cap­tured sev­er­al mil­i­tants while pur­su­ing a Haqqani ter­ror­ist net­work sub­com­man­der. The force searched a com­pound in the Sabari dis­trict after intel­li­gence indi­cat­ed mil­i­tant activ­i­ty, detained the mil­i­tants, and found auto­mat­ic rifles, grenades, fus­es, ammu­ni­tion and a large amount of explosives. 

In Kun­duz, a com­bined force searched a com­pound north­west of Kun­duz City after intel­li­gence indi­cat­ed mil­i­tant activ­i­ty. The force detained two sus­pect­ed mil­i­tants for fur­ther questioning. 

No shots were fired and no Afghan civil­ians were harmed in those operations. 

Mean­while, Afghan and inter­na­tion­al forces are inves­ti­gat­ing two unre­lat­ed inci­dents of civil­ian deaths. 

Four Afghan chil­dren were wound­ed today dur­ing a fire­fight between insur­gents and inter­na­tion­al troops in Kapisa province. The chil­dren were med­ical­ly evac­u­at­ed to an Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force med­ical facil­i­ty. One of the chil­dren report­ed­ly has died from the wounds. 

It is unclear who caused the children’s injuries, and the case is under inves­ti­ga­tion, mil­i­tary offi­cials said. 

Also, com­bined forces in Helmand’s Nahr‑e Saraj dis­trict dis­cov­ered the bod­ies of two women, an elder­ly man and a child, along with four dead mil­i­tants, fol­low­ing a pro­longed bat­tle with insur­gents yes­ter­day. The bod­ies were found inside a com­pound insur­gents were using as a fir­ing posi­tion. Coali­tion forces, unaware of the pos­si­ble pres­ence of civil­ians, direct­ed defen­sive air assets against the com­pound, offi­cials said. 

Afghan and ISAF mil­i­tary offi­cials have launched an inci­dent assess­ment team to review the fac­tors lead­ing up to the incident. 

(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)