Afghanistan — Forces Kill, Detain Insurgents in Kandahar

WASHINGTON, Oct. 7, 2010 — An Afghan and Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force patrol killed three sus­pect­ed insur­gents and detained sev­er­al more in south­ern Afghanistan yes­ter­day, mil­i­tary offi­cials report­ed.

The force was con­duct­ing a route-clear­ing oper­a­tion in Kan­da­har province when they spot­ted a group of mil­i­tary-aged men car­ry­ing weapons. A team was sent to the area to inves­ti­gate the activity. 

As the com­bined patrol entered the tar­get area, they attempt­ed to detain two armed insur­gents. The insur­gents tried to engage the troops and were killed. The patrol then moved to clear a num­ber of tents in the area and detained a sus­pect­ed insur­gent who was found hid­ing. As the patrol con­tin­ued past the tent area, the patrol killed anoth­er sus­pect­ed insur­gent who engaged them with small-arms fire. 

Con­tin­u­ing their patrol, the com­bined force spot­ted a sus­pect­ed insur­gent try­ing to hide on a hill. As the force attempt­ed to ques­tion him, he ran away. The force gave chase and killed him when he pulled a pis­tol from his shirt. As they con­tin­ued to clear the area, the patrol found anoth­er armed man hid­ing. He attempt­ed to engage the patrol and was killed. In sub­se­quent ques­tion­ing, an Afghan woman indi­cat­ed that the sus­pect­ed insur­gents had demand­ed food and drink and threat­ened her fam­i­ly. Three men were detained for fur­ther questioning. 

In oth­er news from Afghanistan: 

— Afghan and coali­tion forces killed the Tal­iban shad­ow gov­er­nor and a senior Tal­iban leader in Badghis province yes­ter­day. A cam­paign to dis­rupt Tal­iban oper­a­tions in Badghis and in neigh­bor­ing Faryab province has result­ed in five Tal­iban senior lead­ers killed, includ­ing the shad­ow gov­er­nors for both provinces, and anoth­er cap­tured, dur­ing sev­er­al oper­a­tions over the last 10 days, offi­cials said. The shad­ow gov­er­nor had oper­a­tional con­trol over Tal­iban fight­ers and sui­cide bombers and direct­ed attacks on coali­tion forces. The secu­ri­ty force tracked three insur­gents armed with assault rifles trav­el­ing through a remote area of the Murghab dis­trict. As the secu­ri­ty force approached, the insur­gents threat­ened them, and the assault force shot and killed them. The third insur­gent was detained unharmed. The secu­ri­ty force con­tin­ued clear­ing in the area and killed three addi­tion­al armed insur­gents who threat­ened them, includ­ing the shad­ow gov­er­nor and the Tal­iban leader. 

— Coali­tion forces con­duct­ed a pre­ci­sion airstrike and fol­low-on oper­a­tion in Takhar province yes­ter­day, killing the Tal­iban leader for the province’s Yan­gi Qalah dis­trict along with sev­en of his asso­ciates. The dis­trict leader was direct­ly respon­si­ble for orga­niz­ing and hold­ing kid­napped Afghan secu­ri­ty forces mem­bers and con­duct­ing bomb­ing and ambush oper­a­tions in the north­ern part of the province. He is linked to the recent deaths of at least 10 Afghan police offi­cers dur­ing an attack on a police sta­tion in Kun­duz province. The secu­ri­ty force tracked the tar­get­ed indi­vid­ual among a group of insur­gents to a remote area of the neigh­bor­ing Dar­quad dis­trict. After ver­i­fy­ing insur­gent activ­i­ty and ensur­ing no civil­ians were present, coali­tion forces con­duct­ed a pre­ci­sion air strike on the group. A fol­low-on Afghan and coali­tion ground force found three insur­gents hid­ing in a near­by wood line and killed them after they threat­ened the secu­ri­ty force. The secu­ri­ty force also con­firmed five insur­gents killed in the strike and found mul­ti­ple auto­mat­ic weapons and grenades at the scene. Ini­tial report­ing indi­cates no civil­ians were killed dur­ing the oper­a­tion, offi­cials said. 

— Coali­tion forces con­duct­ed pre­ci­sion strikes on known home­made explo­sives fac­to­ries and fol­lowed with a com­bined clear­ing oper­a­tion aimed at dis­rupt­ing the Taliban’s free­dom of move­ment in Kan­da­har province yes­ter­day. The Afghan-coali­tion force tar­get­ed sev­er­al com­pounds in the Arghandab dis­trict and con­duct­ed pre­ci­sion strikes on known ene­my explo­sives fac­to­ries before the ground force entered the area. The secu­ri­ty force detained two sus­pect­ed insur­gents. Dur­ing the clear­ance, the force found that one of the com­pounds was boo­by-trapped to explode. After the ground force depart­ed, coali­tion forces con­duct­ed a pre­ci­sion air strike, destroy­ing the com­pound and explo­sives, ensur­ing it could not harm any civil­ians, offi­cials said. 

Offi­cials added that Afghan and coali­tion forces pro­tect any women and chil­dren present dur­ing their operations. 

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

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