Coalition Airstrike Destroys Bomb-making Facility

From an International Security Assistance Force Joint Command News Release

KABUL, Afghanistan, March 21, 2012 – A coalition airstrike destroyed an improvised explosive device-making facility in the Sangin district of Afghanistan’s Helmand province March 19, officials reported today.

Insurgents used the facility to build bombs and coordinate IED attacks in the area, officials said.

Following the precision airstrike, a coalition security force confirmed the building and IED-making materials were destroyed.

In other Afghanistan operations:

-- An Afghan provincial response company, supported by coalition forces, confiscated 44 pounds of hashish, some opium harvesting tools, two rifles and a grenade in Helmand province’s Lashkar Gar district yesterday.

-- In Helmand province’s Nahr-e Saraj district, a combined Afghan and coalition security force confiscated multiple homemade bombs March 18. The team first discovered a motorcycle packed with explosives and, on a later search, found four additional bombs.

-- An Afghan provincial response company, supported by coalition forces, confiscated a large explosives and IED-manufacturing cache in Ghazni province’s Deh Yak district, March 18. The Afghan force found hidden in a garden four IEDs consisting of 187 pounds of explosives, 10 anti-tank mines, 66 pounds of homemade explosives and 10 fuses for anti-person mines.