Airstrike Kills Insurgents in Afghanistan

Compiled from International Security Assistance Force Joint Command News Releases

WASHINGTON, March 3, 2011 – Afghan and coalition forces employed an airstrike that killed several insurgents in Afghanistan’s Helmand province yesterday.

Ground forces observed a group of insurgents building a fighting position in Helmand’s Qalah district. A follow-on precision airstrike killed several of the insurgents.

In other news yesterday throughout Afghanistan:

-- Security forces detained several suspected insurgents while searching for a Taliban leader in Kandahar province’s Kandahar City. The Taliban leader is linked to weapons trafficking and coordinating attacks on local security forces in the area.

-- In Kandahar province’s Arghandab district, troops detained one suspected insurgent and found a weapons stockpile of assorted bomb-making materials, including 21 pounds of ammonium nitrate –- a banned fertilizer used in roadside bombs -– and 15 pounds of scrap metal.

-- Forces found several other weapons and drug stockpiles in operations throughout Afghanistan. The operations resulted in seizure of 23 various artillery rounds, seven rocket-propelled grenades, four pressure plates, two radio-controlled receivers and other assorted bomb-making materials. Troops also found 350 pounds of hashish, 200 pounds of poppy seeds and 20 pounds of opium.

In a March 1 operation, Afghan and coalition forces found 1,000 automatic machine gun rounds, 220 pounds of explosives, 15 large-caliber vehicle-mounted machine guns, five rocket-propelled grenade launchers and a Toyota sedan rigged with explosives.