Combined Force in Kandahar Kills Insurgents, Detains Suspects

WASHINGTON, Aug. 8, 2011 — A com­bined Afghan and Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force patrol killed sev­er­al insur­gents and detained numer­ous oth­ers in the Mya Neshin dis­trict of Afghanistan’s Kan­da­har province yes­ter­day, mil­i­tary offi­cials report­ed.

The insur­gent leader tar­get­ed in the oper­a­tion facil­i­tates attacks against Afghan and coali­tion forces, offi­cials said. 

Today in Kan­da­har province’s Pan­jwai dis­trict, coali­tion forces found and destroyed 705 pounds of home­made explosives. 

Also today, a coali­tion patrol approached a group of Afghan civil­ians who had found a cache of muni­tions. The Afghans turned the cache over to coali­tion forces with­out inci­dent. The cache con­sist­ed of nine artillery shells, a hand grenade and 40 fuses. 

In oper­a­tions around Afghanistan yesterday: 

– A com­bined vehi­cle inter­dic­tion oper­a­tion in Nim­roz province’s Khash Rod dis­trict result­ed in the seizure and destruc­tion of 353 pounds of opi­um, 88 pounds of pre­cur­sor chem­i­cals and some drug-mak­ing equipment. 

– A com­bined patrol found and destroyed 331 pounds of opi­um, small-arms ammu­ni­tion and bomb com­po­nents in Nan­ga­har province’s Achin district. 

– In Kapisa province’s Tagab dis­trict, a com­bined patrol seized three rock­ets, three hand grenades, an assault rifle, sev­en assault-rifle mag­a­zines and 710 7.62mm rounds. 

– A com­bined force in Khost province’s Gur­buz dis­trict seized three rock­ets, three rock­et-pro­pelled grenade launch­ers and an anti-tank mine. 

– A com­bined force killed two insur­gents in Ghazni province’s Wali Muham­mad Shahid Khugyani dis­trict. The secu­ri­ty force was search­ing for a Tal­iban facil­i­ta­tor when they were attacked by mul­ti­ple insur­gents. The secu­ri­ty force returned fire, killing two insur­gents. Dur­ing the search, one of the insur­gents tried to use a child as a human shield. The force was able to safe­guard the child. Fol­low­ing the engage­ment, numer­ous sus­pect­ed insur­gents were detained for ques­tion­ing. The force con­fis­cat­ed blast­ing caps used for road­side bombs, grenades, assault rifles and chest racks. 

– In Kan­da­har province’s Pan­jwai dis­trict, a com­bined force detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents while search­ing for a Tal­iban facil­i­ta­tor respon­si­ble for receiv­ing and dis­trib­ut­ing sup­plies for insur­gents in the district. 

– A com­bined Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty force in Pak­tia province’s Zur­mat dis­trict killed numer­ous Tal­iban insur­gents dur­ing a search for a Tal­iban leader who directs key facil­i­ta­tors, plans attacks, coor­di­nates oper­a­tions and has been impli­cat­ed in a July 5 attack result­ing in the deaths of three U.S. sol­diers. Sev­er­al insur­gents, who ear­li­er in the day had forced their way into the home of a local res­i­dent, fired at the secu­ri­ty force using machine guns and assault rifles. The force returned fire, killing the insurgents. 

– Also in Pak­tia province, a com­bined force detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed Haqqani ter­ror­ist net­work insur­gents in the Zur­mat dis­trict. The tar­get of this oper­a­tion was a Haqqani leader who coor­di­nates road­side-bomb attacks and pro­vides sup­port to Haqqani fighters. 

In oth­er news, a com­bined patrol in Hel­mand province’s Lashkar Gah dis­trict detained sev­er­al insur­gents Aug. 6 while search­ing for an insur­gent leader respon­si­ble for mul­ti­ple attacks against Afghan and coali­tion forces. 

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