Officials in Afghanistan Provide Details of Operations

WASHINGTON, Nov. 1, 2010 — Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force Joint Com­mand offi­cials have pro­vid­ed details of numer­ous recent oper­a­tions around Afghanistan.

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

–– An Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty force killed Zubair, a Haqqani ter­ror­ist net­work facil­i­ta­tor respon­si­ble for the move­ment of weapons and bomb-mak­ing mate­ri­als for dis­tri­b­u­tion to for­eign fight­ers and Haqqani net­works in the area dur­ing an overnight oper­a­tion in Pak­tia province Oct. 30. Shabudin and Ibrahim, two oth­er senior Haqqani lead­ers in the area, also were among those killed dur­ing the oper­a­tion, offi­cials said. Intel­li­gence tips led the part­nered force to a remote com­pound in the province’s Dzad­ran dis­trict, where they encoun­tered sev­er­al armed insur­gents in estab­lished fight­ing posi­tions. The secu­ri­ty force killed more than five ene­my fight­ers through­out the oper­a­tion, offi­cials said, and detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insurgents. 

— Afghan and ISAF forces killed numer­ous insur­gents pro­tect­ing a Tal­iban transna­tion­al ship­ment and stor­age site in the Reg‑e Khan Neshin dis­trict of Hel­mand province over the week­end. Upon arriv­ing at the sus­pect­ed Tal­iban logis­ti­cal hub Oct. 30, the part­nered force imme­di­ate­ly was engaged with small-arms fire from sev­er­al insur­gent posi­tions. Heavy fight­ing ensued, as the insur­gents used small-arms weapons and makeshift bombs against the com­bined force. The secu­ri­ty force engaged the insur­gents using coor­di­nat­ed ground and air assets to advance and clear the posi­tions. Through­out the day, night and into the next morn­ing, the com­bined force cleared the area, meet­ing pock­ets of armed insur­gent resis­tance and numer­ous bombs. More than 15 insur­gents were killed and account­ed for, offi­cials said, and numer­ous oth­er dead and wound­ed insur­gents were tak­en away from insur­gent fir­ing posi­tions before the vacat­ed insur­gent posi­tions were cleared. The secu­ri­ty force found and destroyed an explo­sives fac­to­ry with about 23.7 met­ric tons of ammo­ni­um nitrate – a banned fer­til­iz­er used to build bombs — as well as numer­ous artillery shells, 78 home­made bombs, 500 liters of acid, more than 80 pounds of opi­um, more than 2 tons of chem­i­cals, and numer­ous auto­mat­ic weapons and assort­ed ammunition. 

— An Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty force cap­tured a Tal­iban bomb-com­po­nent facil­i­ta­tor and a sus­pect­ed asso­ciate dur­ing an overnight oper­a­tion in Kan­da­har province. Intel­li­gence tips led the force to a com­pound in the province’s Kan­da­har dis­trict to search for the facil­i­ta­tor, who also is active in the Pan­jwai dis­trict and in the Mala­jat area of Kan­da­har City. 

–– An Afghan secu­ri­ty force, backed by coali­tion forces, cap­tured a Haqqani facil­i­ta­tor in charge of coor­di­nat­ing the acqui­si­tion of road­side bombs and pro­vid­ing spe­cial­ized sup­port for insur­gent attacks con­duct­ed in Khost province’s Ter­ayzai dis­trict dur­ing an overnight intel­li­gence-dri­ven oper­a­tion. The secu­ri­ty force found bomb-mak­ing mate­ri­als at the scene. 

— A com­bined secu­ri­ty force tar­get­ing a senior Haqqani leader respon­si­ble for plan­ning and coor­di­nat­ing attacks on the Sper­ah Dis­trict Cen­ter detained two sus­pect­ed insur­gents dur­ing an overnight intel­li­gence-dri­ven oper­a­tion in Pak­ti­ka province. 

— A part­nered Afghan and ISAF patrol found and destroyed a cache of ammo­ni­um nitrate and relat­ed explo­sive-mix­ing chem­i­cals in Kan­da­har province’s Naveh dis­trict yesterday. 

— Afghan and coali­tion forces in Pak­ti­ka province’s Bermel dis­trict are con­tin­u­ing their assess­ment of a failed Oct. 30 insur­gent attack on Com­bat Out­post Mar­gah. The com­bined forces are in the process of search­ing four sep­a­rate direct-fire and attack-heli­copter-engage­ment areas where insur­gents attempt­ed to sur­round the out­post in a failed attempt to over­run the base, offi­cials said. So far, the com­bined forces have con­firmed 38 insur­gents were killed, and esti­mat­ed that more than 40 addi­tion­al ene­my fight­ers were killed, based on coali­tion heli­copter cam­era footage in the areas where ground forces have not yet con­duct­ed an assess­ment. Wound­ed ene­my fight­ers were recov­ered from the engage­ment area and treat­ed by coali­tion med­ical personnel. 

— ISAF offi­cials con­firmed that Abdul­lah Kakar, a senior Tal­iban leader who planned attacks against Afghan and coali­tion forces and facil­i­tat­ed the move­ment of for­eign fight­ers, was killed dur­ing an Oct. 27 pre­ci­sion air strike in Zab­ul province. Kakar was killed as he showed sub­or­di­nate Tal­iban lead­er­ship his new­ly acquired anti-air­craft heavy machine gun, which was mount­ed on the back of his vehi­cle, offi­cials said. Based on infor­ma­tion from intel­li­gence sources, coali­tion forces tracked him to the province’s Shah Joy dis­trict. After ver­i­fy­ing insur­gent activ­i­ty and ensur­ing no civil­ians were present, coali­tion forces con­duct­ed the pre­ci­sion air strike on the vehi­cle, destroy­ing it and killing Kakar, along with one of his associates. 

— Afghan and coali­tion forces detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents Oct. 30 while search­ing for the Tal­iban dis­trict leader for Hel­mand province’s Garm Ser dis­trict, who also leads a road­side-bomb cell. In Ghazni province’s Ghazni dis­trict Oct. 30, a com­bined force detained a sus­pect­ed insur­gent dur­ing an oper­a­tion tar­get­ing a Tal­iban bomb-attack facilitator. 

— ISAF offi­cials con­firmed the cap­ture dur­ing an intel­li­gence-dri­ven Oct. 29 oper­a­tion in Helmand’s Nad‑e Ali dis­trict of a senior Tal­iban leader who planned and coor­di­nat­ed attacks against Afghan and coali­tion forces. Sev­er­al of his asso­ciates also were detained in the operation. 

— Mul­ti­ple intel­li­gence sources and tips from local res­i­dents led Afghan and ISAF forces to the loca­tion of a Tal­iban leader in an insur­gent safe house in War­dak province’s Maid­an Shahr dis­trict Oct. 29. The tar­get­ed com­pound is known to be asso­ci­at­ed with a Tal­iban leader and facil­i­ta­tor who directs the plan­ning and exe­cu­tion of attacks against Afghan and ISAF forces in and around the province’s Nerkh dis­trict. The secu­ri­ty force detained the Tal­iban leader and one associate. 

— Afghan and ISAF forces defeat­ed an insur­gent attack while build­ing a secu­ri­ty check­point in Kapisa province’s Tagab dis­trict Oct. 29. The com­bined force was attacked by numer­ous insur­gents from sev­er­al posi­tions with auto­mat­ic weapons and rock­et-pro­pelled grenades as they were build­ing the check­point with local offi­cials. The secu­ri­ty force engaged the insur­gents in a fire­fight last­ing sev­er­al hours. An air weapons team sup­port­ed the secu­ri­ty force with aer­i­al sup­pres­sion of the insur­gent fir­ing posi­tions. Sev­er­al insur­gents were killed, and many more were wound­ed from the ground and air, offi­cials said. After tak­ing numer­ous casu­al­ties, the insur­gents with­drew, tak­ing the dead and wound­ed with them. The com­bined secu­ri­ty force then met with local lead­ers, and ini­tial report­ing indi­cat­ed there were no civil­ian casu­al­ties, offi­cials said. 

— A coali­tion force con­duct­ing a mount­ed patrol in Hel­mand province killed more than 10 insur­gents and dis­cov­ered bomb-mak­ing mate­ri­als dur­ing com­bat oper­a­tions ear­ly Oct. 30. While con­duct­ing the patrol in the province’s Reg‑e Khan Neshin dis­trict, the coali­tion force came under small-arms fire. After pos­i­tive­ly iden­ti­fy­ing sev­er­al groups of armed insur­gents, the coali­tion force returned fire with small arms, 25 mm rounds and anti-tank mis­siles. The patrol also found and destroyed bomb com­po­nents and a drug cache. 

–– Afghan and ISAF forces began a clear­ing oper­a­tion in the south­ern Hel­mand town of Bahram Chah on Oct. 30. The area is a Tal­iban com­mand and con­trol area that con­sists of nar­cotics traf­fick­ing, weapons and ammu­ni­tion stor­age, impro­vised explo­sive device fac­to­ries, and for­eign fight­er train­ing areas, Region­al Com­mand South­west offi­cials said. 

–– An Afghan and coali­tion patrol found a large cache of bomb-mak­ing mate­ri­als dur­ing an Oct. 29 oper­a­tion in Helmand’s San­gin district. 

–– An Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty force tar­get­ing a Tal­iban senior leader who plans and coor­di­nates attacks against Afghan and coali­tion forces detained sev­er­al sus­pect­ed insur­gents dur­ing an overnight oper­a­tion Oct. 30 in Hel­mand province’s Nad‑e Ali district. 

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

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