America's North Shore Journal

Afghan and NATO forces have removed dozens of insur­gents from fight­ing in Afghanistan in recent days, includ­ing a long-sought-after Tal­iban com­man­der, mil­i­tary offi­cials reported.

Com­bined Afghan and Inter­na­tional Secu­rity Assis­tance Force units killed at least two dozen insur­gents dur­ing fight­ing in south­ern and east­ern Afghanistan and detained numer­ous oth­ers. In oper­a­tions yes­ter­day (Octo­ber 25 2009):

– A com­bined force killed a dozen enemy mil­i­tants in Kan­da­har province in an oper­a­tion to inter­dict a Tal­iban com­man­der and his unit believed to be respon­si­ble for attacks in the Arghandab dis­trict west of Kan­da­har City. The force coor­di­nated an air strike on the enemy posi­tion. Dur­ing the search, sev­eral of the dead were dis­cov­ered armed with assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, ammu­ni­tion belts and com­mu­ni­ca­tions gear. All items were destroyed in place.

– A com­bined force killed sev­eral mil­i­tants and detained sev­eral sus­pects in Khowst province after search­ing com­pounds in pur­suit of a Haqqani ter­ror­ist orga­ni­za­tion leader linked to a bomb-making and foreign-fighter facil­i­ta­tion net­work in the area. The force searched two com­pounds north of Khowst City. Mil­i­tants out­side of one of the com­pounds posed a hos­tile threat to the com­bined force and were killed. Dur­ing the search, the joint secu­rity force dis­cov­ered mul­ti­ple hand grenades and assault rifles.

- Com­bined forces killed sev­eral mil­i­tants in Ghazni province after search­ing an enemy posi­tion in pur­suit of a dis­trict Tal­iban com­man­der linked to sev­eral other mil­i­tant com­man­ders and for­eign fight­ers in the area. The force received hos­tile fire dur­ing the oper­a­tion from an enemy posi­tion. Return­ing fire, they killed sev­eral mil­i­tants. The force then searched the enemy loca­tion and found mul­ti­ple rocket-propelled grenades, assault rifles and ammu­ni­tion belts. All items were destroyed in place.

- In War­dak province, a com­bined force detained two sus­pects after search­ing a com­pound known to be used by a Tal­iban com­man­der. The joint force searched com­pounds south­west of Kabul with­out inci­dent and with­out fir­ing shots.

- A com­bined force detained sus­pected mil­i­tants after search­ing com­pounds in Khowst province known to be used by a Haqqani bomb tech­ni­cian linked to sev­eral mil­i­tant com­man­ders in the area. The force searched the com­pounds with­out incident.

In an Oct. 24 oper­a­tion, a com­bined force searched a com­pound and detained sev­eral sus­pected mil­i­tants believed to be mem­bers of a bomb­ing net­work in Farah province. The sus­pects sur­ren­dered peace­fully dur­ing the search and no shots were fired.

In oper­a­tions Oct. 22:

- A com­bined force killed a dozen mil­i­tants and detained sev­eral sus­pects in Kan­da­har province after stop­ping a num­ber of vehi­cles in pur­suit of a Tal­iban com­man­der of the province's May­wand dis­trict. The force ini­tially tar­geted a num­ber of vehi­cles in tran­sit across south­ern May­wand after intel­li­gence indi­cated mil­i­tant activ­ity. Sev­eral mil­i­tants were killed after they failed to respond to warn­ings, and oth­ers were detained. Sub­se­quently, the com­bined force received hos­tile fire from mil­i­tants in mul­ti­ple vehi­cles maneu­ver­ing in their direc­tion. The force returned fire, killing another group of mil­i­tants. The force searched each of the vehi­cles and recov­ered a num­ber of small-arms weapons, doc­u­ments and 2,600 pounds of black-tar heroin. The force iden­ti­fied one of the dead as the sought-after Tal­iban com­man­der of Maywand.

– A com­bined force detained sev­eral sus­pected mil­i­tants after search­ing com­pounds in War­dak province known to be used by a Tal­iban com­man­der and his unit respon­si­ble for sev­eral rocket and bomb­ing attacks in the region. The force tar­geted the com­pounds near the vil­lage of Patankhel in the Sayed Abad dis­trict after intel­li­gence indi­cated mil­i­tant activ­ity there. The force searched the com­pound with­out inci­dent and detained sev­eral sus­pects. No shots were fired, and no one was injured in the search.

In other news from Afghanistan, inter­na­tional forces have responded to accu­sa­tions that a U.S. ser­vice­mem­ber burned the Quran last week in War­dak province's May­dan Shar district.

In response to the accu­sa­tions, ISAF troops con­ducted an inves­ti­ga­tion in con­junc­tion with local Afghan army com­man­ders and found the claim groundless.

A spokesman for War­dak Gov. Moham­mad Alim Fadayee, and Mul­lah Qari of the Afghan army in War­dak, pub­licly stated that ISAF troops were not respon­si­ble for the des­e­cra­tion and found no wrong­do­ing by inter­na­tional forces.

In his pub­lic address, Mul­lah Qari pro­vided the results of the inves­ti­ga­tion into the inci­dent and offered an explanation.

"Dear broth­ers, recently, the inci­dent of burn­ing of the Quran that hap­pened in Kowte Ashrow, it was the actions of the ene­mies of Afghanistan and Islam for their pri­vate pur­poses," Qari said. "The ene­mies of Afghanistan are try­ing to make peo­ple go against the gov­ern­ment in order to start riots."

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