Afghanistan — Paktika Operation Leaves Enemy Fighters Dead

WASHINGTON, Oct. 20, 2010 — An overnight oper­a­tion tar­get­ing a Haqqani ter­ror­ist net­work facil­i­ta­tor in Afghanistan’s Pak­ti­ka province left more than 10 ene­my fight­ers dead, mil­i­tary offi­cials report­ed.

The tar­get­ed facil­i­ta­tor is respon­si­ble for han­dling logis­ti­cal require­ments in the province’s Ziruk dis­trict, offi­cials said. 

Based on intel­li­gence tips, a com­bined Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty force tar­get­ed a series of com­pounds in search of the Haqqani facil­i­ta­tor. After ques­tion­ing peo­ple at the scene, the secu­ri­ty force detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insurgents. 

Dur­ing the oper­a­tion, coali­tion air­craft iden­ti­fied and killed groups of armed insur­gents as they maneu­vered from an ene­my camp toward the secu­ri­ty force. 

Also overnight, an Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty force tar­get­ing a Tal­iban senior leader and key financier oper­at­ing in Hel­mand province’s Mar­ja dis­trict detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents. The tar­get­ed indi­vid­ual plans and con­ducts ambush attacks against Afghan and coali­tion forces and han­dles financ­ing for insur­gents oper­at­ing in the dis­trict, offi­cials said. 

Intel­li­gence infor­ma­tion led the secu­ri­ty force to a remote com­pound in the province’s Wash­er dis­trict to search for the tar­get­ed man. While clear­ing the com­pound, the secu­ri­ty force killed a man when he per­formed a threat­en­ing action. 

The secu­ri­ty force also dis­cov­ered more than 1,800 pounds of urea nitrate and cop­per wire — com­po­nents that can be used to cre­ate road­side bombs — and 50 pounds of wet opi­um. In Helmand’s Shah Wali Kot dis­trict yes­ter­day, a part­nered Afghan and coali­tion force act­ing on intel­li­gence infor­ma­tion and tips from local res­i­dents went to a com­pound where insur­gents were oper­at­ing and detained sev­er­al suspects. 

The secu­ri­ty force killed two armed insur­gents who fired on the approach­ing patrol. A machine gun and a pis­tol were found in the vicin­i­ty. The com­bine force found and destroyed sev­er­al weapons and asso­ci­at­ed ammu­ni­tion found at the scene. 

In Bagh­lan province yes­ter­day, coali­tion forces con­duct­ed a pre­ci­sion airstrike tar­get­ing a senior Tal­iban mil­i­tary leader who con­ducts attacks against Afghan and coali­tion forces and intim­i­da­tion cam­paigns tar­get­ing Afghan civil­ians and gov­ern­ment offi­cials. The mil­i­tary leader has worked with the Tal­iban shad­ow gov­er­nor for the province’s Burkah dis­trict and was the Tal­iban leader in the Baghlan‑e Jadid dis­trict before being forced by coali­tion forces to relo­cate, offi­cials said. 

Based on intel­li­gence sources, coali­tion forces tracked a group of insur­gents armed with rock­et-pro­pelled grenades to a remote area in the Burkah dis­trict. After ver­i­fy­ing insur­gent activ­i­ty and care­ful­ly plan­ning to avoid civil­ian casu­al­ties, coali­tion forces con­duct­ed the airstrike. 

The secu­ri­ty force was unable to con­duct an imme­di­ate ground assess­ment, offi­cials said, but ini­tial reports indi­cate sev­er­al insur­gents were killed. Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force offi­cials said they still are gath­er­ing infor­ma­tion to con­firm the reports and to deter­mine whether the tar­get­ed indi­vid­ual was among those killed. 

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

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