Troops Kill, Detain Insurgents, Seize Cache

WASHINGTON, Sept. 19, 2011 — Afghan and coali­tion forces killed one insur­gent, detained one sus­pect and seized a weapons cache dur­ing sep­a­rate oper­a­tions across Region­al Com­mand East in Afghanistan yes­ter­day, mil­i­tary offi­cials report­ed.

The cache con­tained two 82 mm mor­tars, two 81 mm mor­tars, one fuse, one large mor­tar and two munitions. 

In oth­er Afghanistan oper­a­tions yesterday: 

— A com­bined force found five home­made bombs in the Zharay dis­trict of Kan­da­har province. 

— In the Pan­jwai dis­trict of Kan­da­har province, a com­bined force dis­cov­ered a weapons cache con­tain­ing 47 mor­tar rounds. 

— A com­bined force detained sev­er­al sus­pects dur­ing a search for a Haqqani net­work leader in the Dzad­ran dis­trict of Pak­tia province. The leader orga­nizes insur­gent oper­a­tions in Khost and Pak­tia provinces, and facil­i­tates the move­ment of insur­gents from Pak­istan into the region. 

— A com­bined force cap­tured a senior Islam­ic Move­ment of Uzbek­istan leader in the Baghlan‑e Jadid dis­trict of Bagh­lan province. The insur­gent planned attacks and assas­si­na­tions. He also recruit­ed fight­ers for attacks against Afghan secu­ri­ty forces. 

— In the Alisheng dis­trict of Lagh­man province, a coali­tion patrol seized a weapons cache con­tain­ing five 82 mm grenades, two hand grenades and 12 rock­et fuses. 

— A com­bined force cap­tured a Haqqani leader and detained six sus­pects in the Khost dis­trict of Khost province. The insur­gent leader direct­ed road­side-bomb and rock­et attacks against Afghan forces. 

— In the Pul‑e ‘Alam dis­trict of Log­ar province, a com­bined force detained sev­er­al sus­pects dur­ing a search for a Tal­iban leader. The leader is respon­si­ble for road­side-bomb attacks against coali­tion forces. 

— A com­bined force detained mul­ti­ple sus­pects and con­fis­cat­ed weapons, hero­in and road­side-bomb mak­ing mate­ri­als while search­ing for a Tal­iban facil­i­ta­tor in the Sherzad dis­trict of Nan­garhar province. The facil­i­ta­tor coor­di­nates move­ment of vehi­cles, weapons, and bomb-mak­ing com­po­nents through­out the area. 

— A com­bined force seized 19,842 pounds of hashish and 1,852 pounds of ammo­ni­um nitrate alu­mini­um, which is used in the mak­ing of explo­sives, in the Zharay dis­trict of Kan­da­har province. 

In Sept. 17 Afghanistan operations: 

— In the Andar dis­trict of Ghazni province, a com­bined patrol seized an ene­my cache con­tain­ing 1,213 pounds of ammo­ni­um nitrate. 

— In the Deh Rawud dis­trict of Uruz­gan province, a com­bined force seized a weapons cache con­tain­ing four rifles, 13 box­es of 9 mm rounds, 3,500 7.62 mm rounds, 30 hand grenades, 10 rock­ets and four radios. 

— A com­bined patrol detained sev­er­al insur­gents and seized explo­sives in the Shah Joy dis­trict of Zab­ul province. The force dis­cov­ered about 1,100 pounds of ammo­ni­um nitrate, 10 rock­et-pro­pelled grenades, five home­made bomb con­tain­ers, 8.8 pounds of alu­mini­um pow­der and some small arms. 

— A com­bined patrol killed more than 10 insur­gents and destroyed a nar­cotics lab­o­ra­to­ry in the Baghran dis­trict of Hel­mand province. The lab is report­ed to be one of the largest hero­in-pro­duc­ing facil­i­ties destroyed in Afghanistan dur­ing the past five years. Prof­its from it were respon­si­ble for financ­ing insur­gent attacks against Afghan and coali­tion forces. The lab con­tained more than 170 55-gal­lon bar­rels of nar­cotics and relat­ed mate­ri­als. The con­tents includ­ed more than 11,100 pounds of chem­i­cals used in pro­cess­ing hero­in, 4,305 gal­lons of mor­phine solu­tion, 661 pounds of char­coal, 33 pounds of wet opi­um, three dry press­es, three wet press­es, 8.8 pounds of pure hero­in and one com­mu­ni­ca­tions device. 

— Afghanistan Pres­i­dent Hamid Karzai and the Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force joint­ly con­demned the home­made bomb attack in the Qhor­ma­ch dis­trict of Frayab province that killed nine Afghan civil­ians and wound­ed one. Five chil­dren were among those killed. Ini­tial reports indi­cate a sin­gle explo­sive was det­o­nat­ed. “The insur­gents’ vio­lent attack on civil­ians demon­strates their com­plete dis­re­gard for the Afghan peo­ple and the val­ue of human life. We mourn with our Afghan part­ners, and we are out­raged over this trag­ic crime,” said Marine Corps Gen. John R. Allen, com­man­der of ISAF. 

In Sept. 16 Afghanistan operations: 

— A com­bined patrol killed one insur­gent and detained sev­er­al sus­pects in the Khas dis­trict of Uruz­gan province. Two of the detainees are sus­pect­ed insur­gent lead­ers respon­si­ble for sup­ply­ing lethal aid used in attacks against Afghan and coali­tion forces. 

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