Forces Kill Insurgents in Eastern Afghanistan Firefight

KABUL, Afghanistan, Oct. 6, 2011 — A com­bined Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty force killed three insur­gents in a fire­fight yes­ter­day in east­ern Afghanistan’s Pak­ti­ka province, mil­i­tary offi­cials report­ed.

The Afghan sol­diers and Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force mem­bers were search­ing in the Jani Khel dis­trict for a Haqqani net­work leader who dis­trib­utes weapons, ammu­ni­tion and road­side bombs to oth­er insur­gent lead­ers when they were engaged by rock­et-pro­pelled grenade, machine-gun and small-arms fire. The com­bined force returned fire, killing three insur­gents and wound­ing one other. 

An Afghan woman was killed dur­ing the engage­ment, and anoth­er Afghan woman was wound­ed. Both were inside the build­ing dur­ing the fire­fight, offi­cials said. 

Coali­tion forces trans­port­ed the wound­ed for med­ical treat­ment. A local leader engage­ment will be held with the deputy gov­er­nor to dis­cuss the inci­dent, offi­cials said. 

Mul­ti­ple weapons were con­fis­cat­ed dur­ing the oper­a­tions, includ­ing a machine gun with 500 rounds, and a rock­et-pro­pelled grenade launch­er with mul­ti­ple grenades. Three sus­pect­ed insur­gents were detained. 

In oth­er ISAF news from Afghanistan yesterday: 

— A com­bined force in Kan­da­har province’s Kan­da­har dis­trict cap­tured a Tal­iban leader want­ed for abduc­tions in the area and for mov­ing for­eign fight­ers into Afghanistan. 

— Com­bined forces cap­tured a Tal­iban leader and killed two insur­gents in Hel­mand province’s Musa Qalah dis­trict after the insur­gents fired at the force. The leader oper­at­ed a road­side-bomb fac­to­ry, dis­trib­uted muni­tions and threat­ened local peo­ple by extort­ing food and mon­ey. The secu­ri­ty force detained four addi­tion­al sus­pects dur­ing the operation. 

— In Kan­da­har province’s Mai­wand dis­trict, a com­bined force seized and destroyed 165 pounds of hashish. 

— A com­bined force killed an armed Tal­iban leader who fired on them in Log­ar province’s Muham­mad Aghah dis­trict. The leader planned vehi­cle-bomb attacks and financed and man­aged insur­gent fight­ers. The force seized weapons, includ­ing assault rifles and frag­ment grenades, and detained a sus­pect­ed insurgent. 

Source:
From an Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force Joint Com­mand News Release