Afghanistan — Forces Engage Threatening Protestor

WASHINGTON, Sept. 16, 2010 — An Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force ser­vice­mem­ber shot and killed a man who aimed an assault rifle at ser­vice­mem­bers in a guard tow­er dur­ing a protest at For­ward Oper­at­ing Base Mir­wais in the Chorah dis­trict of Afghanistan’s Uruz­gan province today, mil­i­tary offi­cials report­ed.

Ini­tial reports indi­cate a protest of about 100 Afghan civil­ians turned vio­lent when pro­test­ers began throw­ing rocks at coali­tion forces, offi­cials said. 

ISAF offi­cials said in a writ­ten state­ment that the ser­vice­mem­ber shot the man in accor­dance with the rules of engage­ment, and that pro­test­ers pulled the man away before ISAF ser­vice­mem­bers were able to iden­ti­fy his status. 

The protest is report­ed to have been held in response to an alleged Quran burn­ing inside the base yes­ter­day, offi­cials said, adding that the sus­pect­ed burn­ing was a rou­tine burn-pit ses­sion in which ISAF doc­u­ments are destroyed. 

In oth­er news from Afghanistan, coali­tion forces con­duct­ed a pre­ci­sion air strike and a fol­low-on ground oper­a­tion against the Tal­iban dis­trict com­man­der for the Ali­abad dis­trict of Kun­duz province Wednes­day, killing eight insur­gents. The com­man­der was active­ly plan­ning attacks dur­ing the par­lia­men­tary elec­tions sched­uled Sept. 18, offi­cials said. 

Coali­tion forces tracked the tar­get­ed man to an open field in the remote Cha­har Darah dis­trict, where he was meet­ing with sev­er­al armed insur­gents. After care­ful plan­ning to ensure no civil­ians were present, coali­tion air­craft con­duct­ed a pre­ci­sion air strike fol­lowed by direct fire engage­ments against the group. A fol­low-on ground force killed two insur­gents still at the scene who fired at them. 

An inspec­tion of the area con­firmed six insur­gents were killed in the air engage­ments. The ground force also found and destroyed a rock­et-pro­pelled grenade launch­er with mul­ti­ple rounds, along with mul­ti­ple weapons, mag­a­zines and grenades. 

Also in Kun­duz province’s Cha­har Darah dis­trict, Afghan and coali­tion forces detained two sus­pect­ed insur­gents last night in their con­tin­ued pur­suit of an Islam­ic Move­ment of Uzbek­istan com­man­der oper­at­ing there. The com­man­der is well inte­grat­ed with Tal­iban senior lead­er­ship in Kun­duz and main­tains con­tact with Islam­ic Move­ment of Uzbek­istan lead­er­ship in Pak­istan, offi­cials said. 

Intel­li­gence infor­ma­tion led Afghan and coali­tion forces to a com­pound in Kun­duz City in search for the com­man­der. The secu­ri­ty force did not fire their weapons. 

Coali­tion forces con­duct­ed a pre­ci­sion air strike in Pak­ti­ka province yes­ter­day, killing Abdul Rah­man, a key Tal­iban cell leader active in the province. Rah­man was respon­si­ble for build­ing bombs and facil­i­tat­ing the move­ment of weapons, ammu­ni­tion and per­son­nel in Ghazni and Pak­ti­ka provinces. 

Act­ing on intel­li­gence tips, coali­tion forces tracked Rah­man trav­el­ing out­side the Sha­ran dis­trict. After care­ful plan­ning to ensure no civil­ians were present, coali­tion air­craft con­duct­ed a pre­ci­sion air strike against him. Although a ground force was unable to con­duct an imme­di­ate assess­ment of the engage­ment area, it is believed the strike killed the tar­get­ed indi­vid­ual and two of his asso­ciates, offi­cials said. Ini­tial report­ing indi­cates no civil­ians were killed or wound­ed in the strike. 

Also in Pak­ti­ka province yes­ter­day, Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty forces detained three insur­gents, includ­ing a Tal­iban sub­com­man­der and a Tal­iban facil­i­ta­tor active in the province. 

The com­man­der leads device road­side-bomb net­work and sup­plies muni­tions and bomb com­po­nents to his asso­ciates. The facil­i­ta­tor con­duct­ed sur­veil­lance in prepa­ra­tion for Tal­iban oper­a­tions and report­ed infor­ma­tion to sev­er­al active Tal­iban cells. 

Intel­li­gence tips led the secu­ri­ty force to a com­pound in the Sha­ran dis­trict. They iden­ti­fied and detained the com­man­der, along with the facil­i­ta­tor and one of their asso­ciates after ini­tial ques­tion­ing of res­i­dents at the scene. The secu­ri­ty force did not fire their weapons. 

Overnight in Khost province’s Bak dis­trict, Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty forces detained four sus­pect­ed insur­gents while in pur­suit of a Haqqani ter­ror­ist net­work facil­i­ta­tor who coor­di­nates and con­ducts attacks against Afghan and coali­tion forces and pro­vides intel­li­gence to Haqqani senior lead­er­ship in Pak­istan. The secu­ri­ty force also found an auto­mat­ic weapon and instruc­tions for mak­ing bombs at the scene, and did not fire their weapons. 

In Zab­ul province’s Shah Joy dis­trict yes­ter­day, Afghan and coali­tion forces detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents while in pur­suit of a Tal­iban bomb-attack facil­i­ta­tor oper­at­ing in the Qalat dis­trict who report­ed­ly is involved in obtain­ing com­po­nents for remote-con­trolled road­side bombs. The secu­ri­ty force found an auto­mat­ic weapon and a grenade at the scene, and did not fire their weapons. 

Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty forces detained two insur­gents in Kan­da­har province yes­ter­day, includ­ing a Tal­iban com­man­der oper­at­ing in Kan­da­har City who is respon­si­ble for attacks against Afghan civil­ians and Afghan and coali­tion forces, as well as the move­ment of weapons and bomb com­po­nents into the city. 

Based on intel­li­gence reports, the secu­ri­ty force tar­get­ed a com­pound out­side Kan­da­har City, where they iden­ti­fied and detained the com­man­der, along with one of his asso­ciates. The secu­ri­ty force did not fire their weapons. 

In Log­ar province yes­ter­day, Afghan and coali­tion forces detained sev­er­al insur­gents, includ­ing a Tal­iban sub­com­man­der respon­si­ble for attacks in the Bara­ki Barak, Charkh and Pul‑e Alam dis­tricts. The com­man­der also main­tained close ties with facil­i­ta­tors and com­man­ders con­duct­ing attacks in Kabul. 

Based on intel­li­gence tips, the com­bined secu­ri­ty force tar­get­ed a com­pound in the Bara­ki Barak dis­trict to search for the com­man­der and found him hid­ing in a floor oven. 

The secu­ri­ty force detained the com­man­der and three of his asso­ciates and found doc­u­ments ref­er­enc­ing Tal­iban mem­bers at the scene. The assault force did not fire their weapons. 

In Hel­mand province overnight, Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty forces detained two sus­pect­ed insur­gents while in pur­suit of a senior Tal­iban facil­i­ta­tor for insur­gents oper­at­ing in the Musa Qalah area. 

The facil­i­ta­tor is involved in the smug­gling, facil­i­ta­tion and move­ment of weapons and bombs, and he also finances Tal­iban com­man­ders and uses his net­work to acquire weapons and muni­tions for them. The secu­ri­ty force did not fire their weapons. 

A part­nered Afghan and coali­tion oper­a­tion result­ed in the deten­tion of a sus­pect­ed bomb-attack facil­i­ta­tor in Farah province yesterday. 

The com­bined force sur­round­ed the vil­lage of Dehesk near Farah city, based on intel­li­gence reports of the pres­ence of an insur­gent cell. The force ques­tioned and checked the iden­ti­ties of sev­er­al civil­ians and detained the sus­pect­ed facilitator. 

The com­bined force found more than 60 feet of det­o­na­tion cord, artillery launch charges, 10 rock­et can­is­ters, about 25 pounds of refined opi­um and sev­er­al knives in the suspect’s home. He was hand­ed over to Afghan secu­ri­ty forces for pro­cess­ing. The com­bined force also con­fis­cat­ed a car owned by a local Tal­iban commander. 

Offi­cials said Afghan and coali­tion forces pro­tect­ed women and chil­dren present dur­ing their search­es in these operations. 

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

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