Allen Condemns Death of Afghan Official, Promises to ‘Root Out’ Criminals

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19, 2011 — U.S. and Afghan lead­ers are con­demn­ing the death of an Afghan bor­der offi­cial and say his killers will be held account­able, mil­i­tary offi­cials report­ed.

U.S. Army Gen. John R. Allen, com­man­der of the Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force, joined Afghan Pres­i­dent Hamid Karzai yes­ter­day in con­demn­ing Saturday’s assas­si­na­tion of Abdul Baqi Ragh­bat in the Shikar Por Dar­waza area of Kan­da­har province. 

Ragh­bat, an advi­sor to Karzai’s Trib­al and Bor­der Affairs min­istry, “played an instru­men­tal role in advanc­ing many areas of Afghan soci­ety,” Allen said in an ISAF press release. “He made a dif­fer­ence to the peo­ple of this nation, and shame­ful­ly, the ene­mies of peace and sta­bil­i­ty have tak­en his life. 

“Our heart­felt and sin­cere con­do­lences go out to the fam­i­lies and friends of Mr. Ragh­bat and the Kan­da­har com­mu­ni­ty,” he added. “ISAF will con­tin­ue to work close­ly with our Afghan part­ners to root out these crim­i­nals who kill and injure inno­cent Afghans work­ing toward sta­bil­i­ty, peace and pros­per­i­ty for all Afghan peo­ple,” Allen continued.� “These ene­mies of Afghanistan must be held to account.”

In oth­er news from Afghanistan, com­bined forces yesterday: 

— Dis­cov­ered a drug cache con­sist­ing of about 500 pounds of hashish in Kandahar’s Zharay district.� Secu­ri­ty forces destroyed the cache on site with­out incident.

— Dis­cov­ered a muni­tions cache in Hel­mand province’s Lashkar Gah dis­trict con­sist­ing of 10 antiper­son­nel mines, 11 elec­tri­cal box­es used as det­o­na­tion devices, and det­o­na­tion cord. Secu­ri­ty forces destroyed the muni­tions on site with­out incident. 

In Dec. 17 oper­a­tions, com­bined forces: 

— Dis­cov­ered a drug cache in Helmand’s Reg‑e Khan dis­trict con­sist­ing of 2,500 pounds of mar­i­jua­na, 30 pounds of pop­py seeds and 75 pounds of mar­i­jua­na seeds. All of the drugs were destroyed on site with­out incident. 

— In Kandahar’s Zharay dis­trict dis­cov­ered two weapons caches con­sist­ing of two 155 mm rounds, one 107 mm round, one antiper­son­nel mine, two 88 mm rounds, 12 pres­sure plate det­o­na­tion devices, and var­i­ous impro­vised explo­sive device-mak­ing com­po­nents. The secu­ri­ty force destroyed all muni­tions on location.

— Dis­cov­ered a weapons cache in Kandahar’s Pan­jwa’i dis­trict con­sist­ing of four emplaced IEDs, one rock­et-pro­pelled grenade war­head with two boost­ers, mul­ti­ple radios, explo­sive mate­r­i­al and var­i­ous assort­ments of wire and small arms ammu­ni­tion. The secu­ri­ty force con­fis­cat­ed all mate­ri­als for destruc­tion at a lat­er date. 

‑Cap­tured a Tal­iban oper­a­tive involved in a recent sui­cide bomb attack in Bagh­lan province dur­ing an oper­a­tion in Kun­duz province’s Khan­abad district.

In Dec. 16 oper­a­tions, com­bined forces: 

— Detained mul­ti­ple sus­pects in Helmand’s Kaja­ki dis­trict after search­ing for a Tal­iban leader who coor­di­nates ship­ments of explo­sives and weapons in sup­port of insur­gent operations.

— Killed an insur­gent dur­ing a search for a Tal­iban leader in Log­ar province’s Pul‑e ‘Alam dis­trict after the armed man dis­played hos­tile intent. �The force recov­ered an AK-47 assault rifle and detained a sus­pect­ed insurgent.

— Dis­cov­ered a weapons cache in Uruz­gan province’s Tarin Kot dis­trict con­sist­ing of five 107 mm rock­ets with fus­es. The secu­ri­ty force con­fis­cat­ed all rock­ets for destruc­tion at a lat­er date.

— Dis­cov­ered an 800-pound mar­i­jua­na cache in Kandahar’s Arghandab dis­trict. Secu­ri­ty forces burned the mar­i­jua­na on site with­out incident.

— Cap­tured a Haqqani net­work leader in Khost province’s Sabari dis­trict. The man con­duct­ed attacks on Afghan forces and coor­di­nat­ed the move­ment of bomb-mak­ing mate­ri­als through­out the area. The secu­ri­ty force seized mul­ti­ple firearms and detained four addi­tion­al suspects. 

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs) 

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