Officials Confirm Terrorist Leader’s Capture

Compiled from International Security Assistance Force Joint Command News Releases

WASHINGTON, Dec. 1, 2010 – Officials from NATO’s International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan today confirmed the identity of a Haqqani terrorist network leader captured by Afghan and coalition forces Nov. 28 in Khost province, military officials reported.

The Haqqani leader is responsible for transporting foreign fighters to the mountains near the Musa Khel district to plan and stage attacks on Afghan and coalition forces, officials said.

Also today in Afghanistan, Afghan and coalition forces confiscated a number of weapons and munitions.

In Faryab province, forces found a cache of more than 30 artillery rounds, rocket-propelled grenades with launchers and bomb-making materials. Security forces plan to destroy the weapons, officials said.

In southern Afghanistan’s Helmand and Uruzgan provinces, Afghan and coalition forces found and plan to destroy more than 260 rounds of munitions, more than 20 homemade bombs, several rifles and bomb-making materials.

In operations last night, four suspected insurgents were detained. Afghan and coalition forces captured two men in Kandahar who allegedly are connected to a narcotics- and weapons-trafficking network. Two others were detained in Kunduz province in an operation that targeted an Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan leader. The targeted individual is responsible for facilitating suicide bombers from Pakistan, officials said.

Afghan and coalition forces killed several militants and detained a suspected insurgent yesterday in Khost province while searching for a senior Haqqani leader who allegedly is responsible for coordinating bombing attacks against security forces in the area. Afghan and coalition forces approached a building where they believed he was hiding. They immediately took fire from inside the building. After the firefight, several insurgents surrendered. A number of weapons, munitions and bomb-making materials were confiscated.

In Zabul province yesterday, Afghan police at a checkpoint detained a man who was transporting more than a ton of ammonium nitrate from Pakistan. Insurgents use the fertilizer, banned by the Afghan government, in making homemade bombs.