Afghanistan — Tip Leads Afghan Soldiers to Enemy Weapons

WASHINGTON, Aug. 3, 2010 — A tip from local res­i­dents led Afghan sol­diers work­ing with coali­tion part­ners to sev­er­al ene­my weapons stock­piles in Afghanistan’s Heart province yes­ter­day, mil­i­tary offi­cials report­ed.

The Afghan-led force received the tip while con­duct­ing a pres­ence patrol in the province’s Shin­dand district. 

The force’s explo­sive ord­nance dis­pos­al team dis­abled and destroyed nine 155 mm artillery rounds, a 50-pound shape charge, 18 rock­et-pro­pelled grenades, 221 hand grenades, 75 anti-air­craft rounds and 12 anti-per­son­nel mines, as well as oth­er mis­cel­la­neous ordnance. 

Coali­tion offi­cials said the dis­cov­ery is a step for­ward in the grow­ing coop­er­a­tion and part­ner­ships between Afghan secu­ri­ty forces and the country’s peo­ple. In oth­er news from Afghanistan: 

— An Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty force detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed Tal­iban insur­gents in Kan­da­har last night while in pur­suit of a major Tal­iban facil­i­ta­tor involved in the trans­porta­tion of nar­cotics and muni­tions, includ­ing sui­cide-bomb mate­ri­als, between Iran and south­ern Afghanistan. 

— An Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty force detained three sus­pect­ed insur­gents in Hel­mand province’s Lashkar Gah dis­trict last night, includ­ing a Tal­iban sub­com­man­der who facil­i­tat­ed weapons and logis­tics for Tal­iban fight­ers oper­at­ing in the dis­trict. The assault force found an assault rifle, a pis­tol and more than $8,200 in Pak­istani rupees at the scene. — In Zab­ul province’s Shah Joy dis­trict last night, an Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty force detained a sus­pect­ed insur­gent dur­ing a con­tin­ued search for the district’s Tal­iban deputy commander. 

— A com­bined secu­ri­ty force destroyed a boo­by-trapped house and killed sev­er­al insur­gents in Kan­da­har province in a clear­ing oper­a­tion that began yes­ter­day. The oper­a­tion is aimed at dis­rupt­ing the Taliban’s free­dom of move­ment in the province’s Zharay dis­trict, offi­cials said. After clear­ing a com­pound to ensure no civil­ians were present, coali­tion forces called in a pre­ci­sion air strike to destroy a house that was rigged with explo­sives. Insur­gents engaged the secu­ri­ty force with rock­et-pro­pelled grenades and small-arms fire through­out the night. The air weapons team and ground force sup­pressed the ene­my, result­ing in sev­er­al insur­gents killed. A pre­ci­sion air strike killed sev­er­al more insur­gents as they engaged Afghan and coali­tion forces with a large-cal­iber machine gun. The secu­ri­ty force found a recoil­less rifle mount­ed on a tri­pod, a machine gun and mul­ti­ple rounds, along with bomb-mak­ing mate­ri­als, as well as two ene­my bunkers con­tain­ing home­made explosives. 

— An Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty force detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents in Kun­duz province’s Cha­har Darah dis­trict last night dur­ing a clear­ing oper­a­tion aimed at dis­rupt­ing the Taliban’s free­dom of move­ment in the district. 

The ground forces fired no shots and pro­tect­ed women and chil­dren who were present dur­ing the oper­a­tions, offi­cials said. 

Mean­while, insur­gent bomb­ing attacks con­tin­ued to kill or injure Afghan civil­ians. Four peo­ple were killed and three were wound­ed in Faryab province yes­ter­day when they struck a road­side bomb as they were try­ing to come to the aid of bor­der police who had come under ene­my attack. 

Sev­en Afghan civil­ians were wound­ed yes­ter­day when a vehi­cle-borne bomb struck their con­voy in Nan­ga­har province’s Behsud dis­trict. The con­voy includ­ed Afghan Pres­i­dent Hamid Karzai’s trib­al affairs advi­sor and anoth­er advisor. 

Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force offi­cials said more than 400 civil­ians have been killed and 860 have been wound­ed this year in insur­gent bomb attacks. 

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

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