Daily Security Brief: August 6, 2011

GHAZNI: ISAF detained three suspects in the southern province of Ghazni, officials said Saturday.

Provincial police chief Col. Zarawer Zahid said that no Afghan security forces were involved in the operation, which took place in the Qazi Qala area.

He said that another operation is ongoing in the Khogiani district of the province, but there have been no developments.

But residents said that they had heard helicopters gunshots from the area.

Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, confirmed the operation, and said that no Taliban fighters had suffered casualties. He said he was unaware of the Qazi Qala operation.

— Mirwais Himmat

KABUL, according to an ISAF statement released Saturday.

Two of the soldiers were killed Friday while the third died following an improvised explosive device attack Saturday, the statement added.

The statement did not provide any information about the identity of the soldiers.

Meanwhile, Taliban claimed to have killed several foreign soldiers in various attacks in southern Helmand province.

With the latest fatality, the number of international troops killed in Afghanistan so far in 2011 has reached 345, including 250 US soldiers.

–Javed Hamim Kakar

NANGARHAR: Three militants were killed during an ISAF operation in eastern Nangarhar province, officials said on Saturday. Elsewhere in the district, a border police patrol struck a roadside bomb, but district chief Malim Mashuq said there were no casualties.

The operation was launched late on Friday night in Tor Guar area of the Khogiani district, Mohammad Hassan, the district chief, told Pajhwok Afghan News.

Because telephone service is not available in the area, there is no exact information about civilian casualties, but he said that ISAF claimed to have killed three insurgents.

The ISAF media office in east confirmed the air and ground offensive in the area, but did not give exact casualty figures.

— Abdul Moeed Hashmi

NIMROZ: A Taliban commander was killed along with eight of his fighters, and two others were detained, during an ISAF operation in the southwestern province of Nimroz, officials said on Saturday.

The insurgents were killed in the Kandahari area of the Khashrod district during ISAF air and ground operations, Brig. Gen. Abdul Jabbar Purdali, the provincial police chief, told Pajhwok Afghan News, adding that two Arab national also killed in the operation.

Meanwhile the district chief, Mohammad Hasham Noori, added that Khalil, also known as Esmatullah, a Taliban commander, was killed in the operation.

The district chief said that neither ISAF nor local residents had suffered casualties in the operations.

SAR-I-PUL: Three passengers were killed and five others injured when two  minibuses flipped over along the Balkhabab-Sar-i-Pul road in the northern province of Sar-i-Pul, officials said on Saturday.

Both vehicles veered off the road and flipped over on Friday evening in Ab-i-Kalan area of Sangsharak district, Balkhabad district chief Abdul Ansari told Pajhwok Afghan News.

A child and a woman were among the dead, he said.

One of the injured people was in critical condition, head of the district hospital, Dr. Jawad, said.

“People faced such accidents due to the dilapidated and bad condition of the road,” a driver, Abdul Hamid, said.

— Yaqub Ali Madani

HELMAND: Five Taliban fighters, including a local commander, have been killed during a joint operation by Afghan and international forces in southern Helmand province, the governor’s office said on Saturday.

Based on intelligence information, the offensive was carried out in Tarkha Nawar area of Margai district late on Friday night, the governor’s house said in a statement. Taliban commander Janan Agha was among the five insurgents killed during the operation, it said.

The joint forces suffered no casualties during the operation, the statement said, adding the Taliban Quetta Shura had appointed Agha as commander for Nad Ali, Margai, Garamser and Nawa districts.

— Zainullah Stanakzai

KUNDUZ: Police have arrested two persons on the charge of planting mines in northern Kunduz province, officials said on Saturday.

Mine devices, three hand grenades and a Kalashnikov assault rifle were recovered from the two who were arrested on the Kunduz –Chahar Dara highway on Friday evening, police chief, Col. Samiullah Qatra told Pajhwok Afghan News.

The men were identified as local Taliban, he said.     

Qatra also said that police had thwarted a kidnapping bid in Khanabad district. The kidnappers, who managed to flee, wanted to abduct two children.

Meanwhile, police recovered 14 kilograms of heroin and 13 kg of opium from a car near the Imam Sahib dry port. The stuff was intended to be smuggled into Kunduz city, according to the police chief. The smugglers had abandoned the car and escaped before police reached the site, he said.

–Waheedullah

 

MAIDAN WARDAK: One guard of a private security company was killed and seven others wounded in a roadside bombing followed by gun attack by Taliban fighters in central Maidan Wardak province on Saturday, an official said.

The attack took place when a truck travelling in a convoy shipping logistic supplies for foreign soldiers hit a roadside bomb in Koti Asharo area on the Jalrez-Maidan Shahr highway, the governor’s spokesman, Shahidullah Shahid, told Pajhwok Afghan News.

Three vehicles belonging to the Compsu private security company were destroyed in the attack that resulted in a gun-battle between insurgents and the guards at approximately 11:00am.

The firefight continued until 4:00pm, a local resident, Abdullah, said.

The Taliban have not yet commented in this regard.

In southern Zabul province, seven trucks carrying logistics for NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were torched by a private security guards late on Friday night, deputy governor Mohammad Jan Rasoulyar said.  “The security guards burnt the seven trucks and killed a driver,” he said.

However, a Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, asserted responsibility for the incident, saying  the fighters attacked the convoy, killing six guards and setting on fire seven trucks.

–Farid Karimi

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