Helicopter Crash in Afghanistan Kills 9

WASHINGTON, Sept. 21, 2010 — Nine Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force ser­vice­mem­bers were killed when an ISAF heli­copter crashed in south­ern Afghanistan today, mil­i­tary offi­cials report­ed.

One ISAF ser­vice­mem­ber, an Afghan sol­dier and a U.S. civil­ian were injured in the crash and were trans­port­ed to an ISAF med­ical facil­i­ty for treat­ment, offi­cials said. There are no reports of ene­my fire in the area, and the cause of the crash is under inves­ti­ga­tion. ISAF offi­cials have not released the names or nation­al­i­ties of the casu­al­ties or the type of helicopter. 

In oth­er news from Afghanistan: 

— An Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty force detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents in Hel­mand province’s Lashkar Gar dis­trict yes­ter­day while in pur­suit of a Tal­iban bomb­ing cell leader. 

— Afghan and coali­tion forces com­plet­ed a two-day delib­er­ate clear­ing oper­a­tion yes­ter­day aimed at dis­rupt­ing the Taliban’s free­dom of move­ment out­side Kan­da­har City, killing at least 11 insur­gents and destroy­ing sev­er­al homes bob­by-trapped to explode. The com­bined force encoun­tered mul­ti­ple trip-wire bombs, a large home­made-bomb fac­to­ry and mul­ti­ple boo­by-trapped hous­es. Coali­tion air­craft con­duct­ed sev­er­al pre­ci­sion air strikes on the sites to pro­tect the local pop­u­la­tion, offi­cials said 

ISAF offi­cials con­firmed an Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty force killed Nas­rud­din, a Tal­iban sub­com­man­der who oper­at­ed in Kun­duz province’s Ali­abad dis­trict, in a Sept. 19 intel­li­gence-based oper­a­tion. Nas­rud­din planned and con­duct­ed attacks against Afghan civil­ians and Afghan and coali­tion forces. As the secu­ri­ty force approached the tar­get­ed com­pound, sev­er­al armed insur­gents ran out fir­ing. The assault force react­ed by engag­ing the insur­gents from the ground and from coali­tion air­craft. Five insur­gents, includ­ing Nas­rud­din, were killed in the engage­ment. After ques­tion­ing the res­i­dents at the scene, the secu­ri­ty force detained two insurgents. 

— An Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty force cap­tured the Tal­iban com­man­der for Bagh­lan province’s Baghlan‑e Jadid dis­trict yes­ter­day and killed two Tal­iban insur­gents, includ­ing Mul­lah Mah­boob Elahi, a senior Tal­iban leader and weapons facil­i­ta­tor Three oth­er insur­gents were cap­tured. The dis­trict com­man­der was linked to sev­er­al attacks dur­ing Afghanistan’s Sept. 18 elec­tions, and Elahi reg­u­lar­ly trav­elled to Pak­istan to meet with Tal­iban senior lead­er­ship and obtain weapons. The secu­ri­ty force also dis­cov­ered and destroyed mul­ti­ple auto­mat­ic weapons, grenades, mag­a­zines, mor­tar fus­es and ammu­ni­tion, along with bomb-mak­ing mate­ri­als, at the scene. 

— In Nan­garhar province’s Sherzad dis­trict yes­ter­day, an Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty force killed three insur­gents and detained sev­er­al oth­ers while in pur­suit of a Tal­iban com­man­der respon­si­ble for ambush and remote­ly con­trolled bomb attacks. The com­man­der also leads up to 150 fight­ers, offi­cials said. Sev­er­al armed insur­gents fired at the secu­ri­ty force, which then returned fire and killed three of them. After the area was secured, the secu­ri­ty force ques­tioned the res­i­dents at the scene and detained three insur­gents. The assault force also found and destroyed mul­ti­ple auto­mat­ic weapons, hand grenades, mag­a­zines and ammu­ni­tion, along with a rock­et-pro­pelled grenade launch­er with mul­ti­ple rounds and a pistol. 

— An Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty force detained a Haqqani ter­ror­ist net­work sub­com­man­der and three addi­tion­al sus­pects in an intel­li­gence-based oper­a­tion in Khost province’s Khost dis­trict yes­ter­day. The sub­com­man­der is direct­ly linked to attacks dur­ing the Sept. 18 elec­tions and pre­vi­ous attacks dur­ing high-pro­file events. 

— Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty forces detained sev­en sus­pect­ed insur­gents in Zab­ul province’s Shah Joy dis­trict yes­ter­day dur­ing their con­tin­ued pur­suit of a Tal­iban bomb-attack facil­i­ta­tor oper­at­ing in the Qalat district. 

— Insur­gents attacked a com­bined Afghan and coali­tion dis­mount­ed patrol with small-arms and machine-gun fire in Hel­mand province’s Nad‑e Ali dis­trict yes­ter­day. The com­bined force pos­i­tive­ly iden­ti­fied insur­gent fir­ing posi­tions and respond­ed with small-arms and mor­tar fire. The force also called for close-air sup­port. A coali­tion air­craft engaged the insur­gent fir­ing posi­tions with pre­ci­sion-guid­ed muni­tions and gun runs. The engage­ment result­ed in 14 insur­gents killed and one wound­ed. Ini­tial oper­a­tional report­ing stat­ed there were no civil­ian casualties. 

— Coali­tion forces detained a Tal­iban com­man­der respon­si­ble for plant­i­ng road­side bombs, run­ning ille­gal check­points and con­duct­ing attacks on Com­bat Out­post Tereza­yi in Khost province’s Tereza­yi dis­trict in a Sept. 17 oper­a­tion. Noor Wali Shah, head of the district’s ethics depart­ment, was detained after coali­tion forces con­duct­ing a rou­tine patrol rec­og­nized him as a per­son of inter­est and ver­i­fied his iden­ti­ty. Shah, who is con­nect­ed to a Sept. 1 attack on the com­bat out­post, was known as an insur­gent cell leader in the district. 

Afghan and coali­tion forces pro­tect­ed women and chil­dren present dur­ing the oper­a­tions, offi­cials said. 

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

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