Coalition, Afghan Forces Detain Numerous Insurgent Leaders

WASHINGTON, Nov. 15, 2010 — Coali­tion and Afghan forces detained numer­ous insur­gent fight­ers in at least a dozen oper­a­tions con­duct­ed through­out Afghanistan in recent days, mil­i­tary offi­cials report­ed.
Com­bined Afghan and Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force teams con­tin­ued to focus on Tal­iban and Haqqani Net­work lead­ers as they con­duct­ed secu­ri­ty oper­a­tions in Nan­garhar, Khost, Kab­ul, Hel­mand, Kun­duz, and Bagh­lan provinces Nov. 12 and 13.

On Nov. 13, com­bined forces: 

— Cap­tured a Haqqani Net­work mem­ber known for vehi­cle-borne impro­vised explo­sive device attacks, and sus­pect­ed in com­plex attacks through­out Khost. The force fol­lowed intel­li­gence tips and cap­tured the man and sev­er­al of his asso­ciates at a com­pound in the Gul­dar in Sabari dis­trict. The men were iden­ti­fied by ques­tion­ing at the scene, and no shots were fired. 

— Cap­tured a Tal­iban weapons traf­fick­er oper­at­ing in the Khugyani dis­trict of Nan­garhar dur­ing an overnight oper­a­tion. Intel­li­gence tips led the secu­ri­ty force to a com­pound out­side of Jalal­abad to search for the man, who is known to pro­cure machine guns and rock­ets from Peshawar, Pak­istan, and report­ed­ly com­mands more than 50 fight­ers. The secu­ri­ty force secured the area and called for all occu­pants to exit the com­pounds peace­ful­ly. The sus­pect iden­ti­fied him­self dur­ing ques­tion­ing and no shots were fired. 

— Detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents and con­fis­cat­ed an ille­gal drug cache in Helmand’s Now Zad dis­trict. Secu­ri­ty forces also shot and killed an armed insur­gent when he showed hos­tile intent toward the secu­ri­ty force. After quelling the threat, the team pro­ceed­ed to secure the area, and then called for all occu­pants to exit the build­ings peace­ful­ly before search­ing the com­pounds. They dis­cov­ered 25 pounds of black tar hero­in and 200 pounds of mar­i­jua­na, in addi­tion to mul­ti­ple auto­mat­ic weapons. The forces detained the sus­pects based on ini­tial ques­tion­ing, as well as their pos­ses­sion of ille­gal drugs and weapons. 

— Detained a man in Kab­ul sus­pect­ed of plan­ning upcom­ing attacks there. The man was detained peace­ful­ly after forces searched a com­pound in the city, which was lat­er turned over to Afghan nation­al police to control. 

— Detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents while tar­get­ing a Haqqani Net­work IED expert in Pak­ti­ka. Based on intel­li­gence reports, the secu­ri­ty force tar­get­ed a remote com­pound south­west of Tal­abkhel, which they cleared and secured peace­ful­ly. The force detained the sus­pects fol­low­ing ques­tion­ing at the scene. 

— Detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents dur­ing a search for a high-rank­ing Islam­ic Move­ment of Uzbek­istan senior leader in Kun­duz. The man is sus­pect­ed of coor­di­nat­ing sui­cide bombers from Pak­istan for attacks in the province and acts as a liai­son for Tal­iban in the area. 

— Detained two men sus­pect­ed of being asso­ci­at­ed with the Tal­iban deputy shad­ow gov­er­nor of Farah province’s Bak­wah dis­trict. He is believed respon­si­ble for direct­ing attacks against Afghan and coali­tion forces, and exe­cut­ing strate­gic guid­ance from Farah senior ter­ror­ist lead­ers as well as lead­er­ship in Pak­istan. Secu­ri­ty forces tracked the sus­pects to a remote area to ensure the safe­ty of local res­i­dents. As the force secured the area, the sus­pects attempt­ed to flee, but were detained peace­ful­ly. No shots were fired. 

— Repelled an insur­gent attack on an ISAF for­ward oper­at­ing base in Nangarhar’s Behsud dis­trict after the base received small arms fire. After gain­ing pos­i­tive iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of insur­gent fight­ing posi­tions, a quick reac­tion force was sent to the area. Ini­tial reports indi­cat­ed eight insur­gents were killed by the com­bined force. One was wear­ing a sui­cide vest. No Afghan or ISAF ser­vice­mem­bers were killed. 

— Destroyed a large weapons cache found dur­ing an oper­a­tion in Kab­ul. The cache includ­ed 25 anti-per­son­nel mines, 22 82 mm mor­tar rounds, 28 51 mm mor­tar rounds, 100 rock­et-pro­pelled grenades, 10 82 mm white phos­pho­rus mor­tar rounds, 36 75 mm recoil­less rifle rounds and 50 80 mm high-explo­sive mor­tar rounds. In Nov. 12 operations: 

— Com­bined forces destroyed a sig­nif­i­cant weapons cache and detained a Tal­iban senior leader along with sev­er­al sus­pect­ed crim­i­nal asso­ciates in Helmand’s Dishu dis­trict. The detained leader is known to pos­sess and trans­fer IED com­po­nents, and is involved in man­ag­ing weapons and nar­cotics sup­ply routes between Pak­istan and south­ern Afghanistan. Secu­ri­ty forces made the arrests after search­ing sev­er­al com­pounds where Afghan forces used a loud­speak­er to call for all the occu­pants to exit the build­ings peace­ful­ly. The forces detained the addi­tion­al sus­pects after con­duct­ing ques­tion­ing and find­ing numer­ous weapons, includ­ing a rock­et-pro­pelled grenade, pis­tol, hand grenade and anti-air­craft 20 mm rounds on the scene. A vehi­cle on the scene also test­ed pos­i­tive for ammo­ni­um nitrate, com­mon­ly used in IEDs. No shots were fired dur­ing the operation. 

— A com­bined team cap­tured a key Tal­iban leader with direct ties to insur­gent net­works in Kab­ul and north­ern Log­ar province. Intel­li­gence reports led the force to a com­pound in Logar’s Pul‑e Alam dis­trict where Afghan forces used a loud­speak­er to call for all occu­pants to exit the com­pounds peace­ful­ly before the force cleared and secured the build­ings. The force iden­ti­fied and peace­ful­ly detained the man and one of his associates. 

— Coali­tion forces killed sev­er­al armed insur­gents dur­ing a pre­ci­sion air strike in Bagh­lan tar­get­ing a Tal­iban senior leader oper­at­ing in the Baghlan‑e Jadid dis­trict who report­ed­ly attacked Afghan vot­ers at polling sta­tions dur­ing the Sep­tem­ber par­lia­men­tary elec­tions, and has plant­ed IEDs along pub­lic roads. Coali­tion forces tracked insur­gents to a remote area and, after pos­i­tive­ly iden­ti­fy­ing weapons and being care­ful to avoid civil­ian causal­i­ties, coali­tion forces con­duct­ed the air strike. ISAF is still gath­er­ing infor­ma­tion to con­firm the senior leader was among the insur­gents killed. 

— ISAF con­firmed the cap­ture of a Haqqani Net­work leader who sup­plied weapons, vehi­cles and mate­ri­als to insur­gent fight­ers oper­at­ing in Sabari dis­trict. Intel­li­gence reports led the force to a com­pound in the Sabari dis­trict where Afghan forces used a loud­speak­er to call for all occu­pants to exit the build­ings peace­ful­ly, then the joint secu­ri­ty force cleared and secured the area. After auto­mat­ic weapons and explo­sive mate­r­i­al were found at the scene, the secu­ri­ty force detained the sus­pect and sev­er­al of his asso­ciates with­out shots fired. 

— A sui­cide attack­er killed one Afghan civil­ian dur­ing a vehi­cle-borne IED attack near the entrance to the coali­tion base Camp Julien. The attack hap­pened after a con­voy of coali­tion and Afghan troops depart­ed the base south of Kab­ul. No Afghan or ISAF ser­vice­mem­bers were killed in the attack. One mil­i­tary vehi­cle was damaged. 

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

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