Combined Force Captures al-Qaida Operative

From an International Security Assistance Force Joint Command News Release

KABUL, Afghanistan, June 2, 2011 – A combined Afghan and coalition security force captured an al-Qaida facilitator and two associates in the Nahr-e Shahi district of Afghanistan’s Balkh province yesterday, military officials reported.

The Pakistan-based attack planner is a close associate of senior al-Qaida insurgents, officials said, and is believed to have been with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan in 2001.

In other operations in Afghanistan yesterday:

-- Based on intelligence tips, a combined force detained numerous suspected insurgents in the city of Mazar-e Sharif in Balkh province while searching for a Taliban leader who coordinates and conducts bombing attacks against Afghan government officials and security forces.

-- A combined force acting on intelligence information captured a Taliban leader who directs about 45 enemy fighters and one of his associates in Kandahar province’s Panjwai district.

-- An International Security Assistance Force patrol found and destroyed 99 pounds of marijuana in Kandahar’s Panjwai district.

-- In Khost province’s Sabari district, a combined force captured a Haqqani terrorist network facilitator and two of his associates. The facilitator is responsible for transport of homemade bombs targeting Afghan and coalition forces. The security force found and confiscated an assault rifle with ammunition and a chest rack.

-- In Logar province’s Baraki Barak district, an Afghan-led combined force detained two suspected insurgents while searching for a Taliban leader responsible for planning attacks targeting Afghan forces and moving weapons and ammunition to other insurgents.

-- An Afghan-led combined force in Ghazni province’s Gelan district detained numerous suspected insurgents while searching for a Taliban leader who plans bombing attacks targeting Afghan and coalition forces along Highway 1 in Zabul province’s Shah Joy district.

-- A combined force in Nuristan province’s Do Ab district found and confiscated six rocket-propelled grenade rounds, 200 7.62 mm machine-gun rounds, an 82 mm mortar base plate and an assault rifle magazine.