Afghanistan — Officials Provide Details of Afghanistan Operations

WASHINGTON, Aug. 9, 2010 — Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force Joint Com­mand offi­cials have pro­vid­ed details on numer­ous recent oper­a­tions through­out Afghanistan.

In Bagh­lan province:

–— Afghan sol­diers, assist­ed by U.S. spe­cial oper­a­tions forces, found and destroyed a weapons cache Aug. 4 in the vil­lage of Bagh‑e Shormal. The Afghan-led force received infor­ma­tion from local res­i­dents on the loca­tion of a weapons cache belong­ing to an ambush cell leader. After secur­ing the area, the part­nered force recov­ered two rock­et-pro­pelled grenade launch­ers with high-explo­sive and armor-pierc­ing grenades, more than 150 rounds of ammu­ni­tion, an assault rifle and six arti­cles of U.S. Army-issued cloth­ing. The cache was destroyed in place. 

In Farah province:

— An Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty force detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents dur­ing a two-day joint oper­a­tion aimed at dis­rupt­ing the insur­gency net­work in the province’s Bala Boluk dis­trict. The secu­ri­ty force also found a cache con­sist­ing of 10 107 mm rock­ets and bomb-mak­ing components. 

In Hel­mand province:

— ISAF con­firmed the cap­ture of the Tal­iban dis­trict com­man­der in charge of Garm Ser dis­trict of Hel­mand province dur­ing a com­bined Afghan and coali­tion force oper­a­tion Aug. 5. 

— Afghan and coali­tion forces uncov­ered a large stock­pile of weapons and com­mu­ni­ca­tions equip­ment dur­ing a com­bined oper­a­tion Aug. 7. While inves­ti­gat­ing the weapons find, the force was engaged by insur­gents with small- arms fire, rock­et-pro­pelled grenades and sniper fire. ISAF forces request­ed close-air sup­port, which was pro­vid­ed by an air weapons team and a U.S. Air Force A‑10. Four­teen insur­gents were killed and no civil­ians were hurt in the oper­a­tion. The weapons dis­cov­ered at the scene includ­ed recoil­less rifles, 82 mm mor­tar rounds, an RPG, an anti-per­son­nel mine, com­plete road­side bombs and bomb-mak­ing mate­r­i­al, com­mu­ni­ca­tions radios and repeaters. 

— An Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty force con­tin­ued its pur­suit of a Tal­iban dis­trict com­man­der in charge of Nawah-ye Barakzai dis­trict, detain­ing two sus­pect­ed insur­gents dur­ing an Aug. 6 oper­a­tion. The secu­ri­ty force tar­get­ed a com­pound in the remote Mar­ja dis­trict in pur­suit of the com­man­der, who recent­ly returned from Pak­istan. As the assault force approached the com­pound, two men tried to escape, but the secu­ri­ty force cap­tured them peacefully. 

In Kab­ul province:

–- Afghan police and coali­tion forces locat­ed and destroyed two rock­ets that were poised for an attack on the Afghan cap­i­tal of Kab­ul today. The rock­ets were tak­en to a con­trolled-impact zone for destruction. 

— ISAF sol­diers pro­vid­ed sup­plies to vic­tims of flood­ing in the Musahi dis­trict today. Region­al Com­mand Cap­i­tal sol­diers deliv­ered 2,000 meals, 250 din­ing kits, 200 blan­kets, 150 pairs of boots and 150 rain­coats. ISAF also pro­vid­ed the ser­vices of a physician. 

In Kan­da­har province:

— Coali­tion forces con­duct­ed a pre­ci­sion air strike yes­ter­day tar­get­ing a Tal­iban facil­i­ta­tor who equipped Tal­iban fight­ers for i attacks against Afghan civil­ians and Afghan and coali­tion forces in Kan­da­har City. After ver­i­fy­ing insur­gent activ­i­ty and care­ful plan­ning to avoid civil­ian casu­al­ties and to mit­i­gate col­lat­er­al dam­age, coali­tion forces called in the pre­ci­sion air strike on a remote area out­side the provin­cial cap­i­tal. Ini­tial reports indi­cate sev­er­al insur­gents were killed in the strike. 

— ISAF offi­cials con­firmed the Aug. 6 cap­ture of a senior Tal­iban com­man­der oper­at­ing in the Char­baugh area of Arghandab dis­trict dur­ing an Afghan-led oper­a­tion. The com­man­der con­duct­ed bomb­ing attacks and intim­i­da­tion cam­paigns against Afghan civilians. 

— Two men were detained in Kan­da­har City today when they tried to pass through a check­point with­out iden­ti­fi­ca­tion by try­ing to bribe Afghan nation­al civ­il order police, who refused the offer and detained them. 

— An Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty force detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed Tal­iban insur­gents Aug. 7 while in pur­suit of a Tal­iban facil­i­ta­tor who pro­vides weapons and bomb-mak­ing mate­ri­als to oper­a­tives in Kan­da­har City and Arghandab district. 

— Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty forces returned to the area north of Diwar in Zharay dis­trict over the week­end to con­tin­ue clear­ing oper­a­tions aimed at dis­rupt­ing Tal­iban move­ment in the area known as a stag­ing area for attacks in Kan­da­har City. The lat­est oper­a­tion result­ed in sev­er­al insur­gents killed and the destruc­tion of a tun­nel sys­tem, sev­er­al home­made bombs, two 82 mm mor­tar sys­tems and large-cal­iber machine guns. The insur­gents engaged the secu­ri­ty force with rock­et-pro­pelled grenades, bombs and small-arms fire through­out the oper­a­tion. An air weapons team and ground forces sup­pressed the ene­my, result­ing in sev­er­al insur­gents killed. Addi­tion­al­ly, pre­ci­sion air strikes destroyed dozens of pres­sure-plate and com­mand-wire bombs. The assault force also found and destroyed mul­ti­ple RPGs, auto­mat­ic weapons, chest racks, mor­tars, hand grenades and bomb-mak­ing mate­r­i­al. Dur­ing the last oper­a­tion, the assault force found and destroyed a house boo­by-trapped with explo­sives, three trip wires attached to road­side bombs, a large-cal­iber machine gun, a recoil­less rifle mount­ed on a tri­pod, a machine gun and mul­ti­ple rounds, along with bomb com­po­nents. They also dis­cov­ered and cleared two ene­my bunkers con­tain­ing home­made explo­sives. Sev­er­al insur­gents died in that operation. 

— Afghan army com­man­dos work­ing with U.S. Spe­cial Forces came under attack Aug. 4 while con­duct­ing a secu­ri­ty patrol to dis­rupt insur­gents. The Afghan-led force went to a series of com­pounds in the Zher­ay dis­trict after intel­li­gence con­firmed mil­i­tant activ­i­ty. As the part­nered force neared the first set of com­pounds, they came under attack by rock­et-pro­pelled grenades and small-arms fire from mul­ti­ple ene­my posi­tions, one of which was a mosque being used as insur­gent head­quar­ters. A Spe­cial Forces com­man­der said more than 12 insur­gents were killed. 

In Khost province:

— ISAF offi­cials con­firmed the cap­ture of a Haqqani ter­ror­ist net­work road­side-bomb cell leader dur­ing an Afghan-led secu­ri­ty oper­a­tion in Khost dis­trict Aug. 6. 

— An Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty force detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed Haqqani net­work insur­gents yes­ter­day, includ­ing a facil­i­ta­tor who pro­vid­ed weapons and bomb com­po­nents for attacks against Afghan civil­ians and Afghan and coali­tion forces. 

— ISAF offi­cials con­firmed the cap­ture of a Haqqani bomb­ing-attack cell leader in Khost dis­trict dur­ing an Afghan-led oper­a­tion Aug. 6, and the Aug. 4 cap­ture in Ter­ayzai dis­trict of a Haqqani facil­i­ta­tor respon­si­ble for dis­trib­ut­ing weapons and bomb com­po­nents to for­eign fight­ers and Haqqani-affil­i­at­ed networks. 

— An Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty force detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed Haqqani insur­gents in Khost dis­trict the night of Aug. 6 while in pur­suit of a bomb­ing-cell leader. 

In Kunar province:

— Afghan civil­ians in the Uzbeen val­ley turned in more than 400 pieces of ammu­ni­tion to coali­tion forces Aug. 4–6. The civil­ians told offi­cials from Task Force Lafayette where the insur­gent cache was hid­den, and vol­un­teered to bring the muni­tions to the Task Force soldiers. 

In Log­ar province:

— An Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty force detained two sus­pect­ed Tal­iban insur­gents in Mir­w­al in Pul‑e Alam dis­trict the night of Aug. 7, includ­ing a Tal­iban senior com­man­der who planned and con­duct­ed attacks against Afghan gov­ern­ment offi­cials and Afghan and coali­tion forces. 

— ISAF con­firmed the cap­ture of a Tal­iban bomb and weapons facil­i­ta­tor dur­ing an Aug. 4 Afghan-led secu­ri­ty force operation. 

In Pak­tia province:

— An Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty force detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed Tal­iban insur­gents in Zur­mat dis­trict Aug. 7 while in pur­suit of a Tal­iban sui­cide-bomber facil­i­ta­tor respon­si­ble for the move­ment of weapons and ammunition. 

— In the Gardez dis­trict Aug. 7, an Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty force detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed Haqqani insur­gents while in pur­suit of a Haqqani facil­i­ta­tor who also acts as a senior-lev­el inter­roga­tor of the network’s prisoners. 

In Pak­ti­ka province:

— ISAF offi­cials con­firmed the death of Shahin, a Tal­iban com­man­der respon­si­ble for order­ing attacks against Afghan and coali­tion forces oper­at­ing in the Maka Khan and Sha­rana area, dur­ing a com­bined secu­ri­ty force oper­a­tion July 20. Shahin was among sev­er­al insur­gents killed dur­ing the oper­a­tion, which was con­duct­ed at a series of com­pounds near Zardad in Sha­ran district. 

In Uruz­gan province:

— Afghan and coali­tion forces came under sus­tained small-arms fire dur­ing a pres­ence patrol in Aug. 7, result­ing in a num­ber of insur­gents being killed. As the Afghan-led force neared Yahk­dan vil­lage to meet with vil­lage elders and assess sus­pect­ed insur­gent activ­i­ty in the area, the insur­gents began shoot­ing at the com­bined force from mul­ti­ple fir­ing posi­tions in the direc­tion of the vil­lage. The part­nered force returned fire, and close-air sup­port was used dur­ing the engage­ment to drop pre­ci­sion-guid­ed muni­tions on the insur­gent fir­ing positions. 

In Zab­ul province:

— An Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty force detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents in the Shah Joy dis­trict yes­ter­day while in pur­suit of a Tal­iban com­man­der who leads bomb­ing and small-arms attacks against Afghan civil­ians, as well as Afghan and coali­tion forces. While search­ing the area, the com­bined force found and detained sev­er­al men who were hid­ing in a ditch. 

In oth­er news from Afghanistan, ISAF Joint Com­mand offi­cials report­ed sev­er­al inci­dents in which ene­my actions tar­get­ed polit­i­cal lead­ers or killed or injured Afghan civilians: 

— A road­side bomb det­o­nat­ed when a con­voy was return­ing from escort­ing Gov. Moham­mad Omar to the provin­cial cap­i­tal in Kun­duz province Aug. 7. 

— Five Afghans were injured as a result of a vehi­cle-borne bomb­ing attack in Her­at province yes­ter­day. ISAF med­ical per­son­nel pro­vid­ed first aid to the injured Afghans and trans­port­ed them to an ISAF med­ical facil­i­ty. The blast ignit­ed a near­by fuel tanker, but Afghan and coali­tion forces’ fire­fight­ers extin­guished the fire. 

— An Afghan child was killed and anoth­er child was wound­ed when insur­gents attacked a coali­tion out­post in Kunar province’s Watah­pur dis­trict yesterday. 

— Three Afghan civil­ians were wound­ed by an insur­gent bomb­ing attack in Ghazni province yesterday. 

— An insur­gent bomb­ing attack on Afghan and coali­tion forces killed two civil­ians and wound­ed five more in Hel­mand province Aug. 7. The forces were return­ing to a for­ward oper­at­ing base after con­duct­ing oper­a­tions in the area. 

— A child died of wounds suf­fered in an Aug. 7 road­side-bomb blast in Kan­da­har province. Anoth­er child was seri­ous­ly wound­ed in the attack in the province’s Mai­wand district. 

— A civil­ian was killed and five oth­ers were wound­ed in an Aug. 7 bomb­ing attack in Helmand’s Nahr‑e Saraj dis­trict. ISAF forces treat­ed the wound­ed at a coali­tion facility. 

— An Afghan civil­ian was killed and anoth­er was wound­ed out­side a coali­tion out­post when insur­gents attacked the out­post with small-arms and rock­et-pro­pelled grenade fire in Kunar’s Watah­pur dis­trict Aug. 7. ISAF forces treat­ed the wound­ed civil­ian at the outpost. 

— In Uruzgan’s Deh Rawud dis­trict Aug. 7, an Afghan civil­ian was killed in an insur­gent bomb explosion. 

— An Afghan civil­ian was wound­ed in an insur­gent bomb det­o­na­tion in Balkh province’s Mazar‑e Sharif district. 

ISAF offi­cials said more than 30 civil­ians have been killed and more than 40 oth­ers have been wound­ed by insur­gents so far this month. 

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

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