Daily Security Brief: February 29, 2012

FARYAB: A senior district council official was killed along with four of his security guards in a roadside bombing in the Qaisar district of western Faryab province, an official said on Wednesday.

Muhammad Sadd Hamid, the Qaisar district chief, told Pajhwok Afghan News that Musa, the district council’s deputy head, and his guards were killed while returning from a visit to a joint Afghan-ISAF post in the area.

On their way back, their vehicle struck a roadside bomb, Hamid added.  There was no immediate claim of responsibly for the incident, but Taliban are often blamed for targetting government officials.

–Qutbuddin Kohi

mds/ma/mud

KABUL: Sixteen insurgents were killed, three inured and 12 others arrested during joint operations in different provinces over the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Interior (MoI) said on Wednesday.

The operations were conducted by Afghan and NATO-led troops in Logar, Khost, Helmand and Kandahar provinces, a a statement from the ministry said.

Sixteen weapons, 443 heavy shells, four anti-vehicle mines, two rocket launchers, one hand grenade, 10 walkie-talkies and 348 kilograms of explosives were seized during the operations.

In southwestern Nimroz province, security personnel detained a drug trafficker who wanted to smuggle 75 kilograms of crystal (a refined form of heroin) to neighboring Iran, the provincial police chief said.

Col. Mohammad Musa Rasuli told Pajhwok Afghan that counternarcotics police arrested the man in the Abrisham area near the Iran border. The drugs had been placed in secret cavities of a transit truck, he added.

–Pajhwok report

mrh/mud

NANGARHAR: Police recovered 25 kilograms of heroin during a raid on a house in the Achin district of eastern Nangarhar province, the governor’s house said on Wednesday.

Based on a tip-off from the Department of Counternarcotics Affairs, the house of Farid Jan was raided and the drugs recovered. No one was arrested during the operation, a statement from the governor’s office said.

Eng. Shakirullah Durrani, the Speenghar district, said they had destroyed the illegal poppy crop over 15 acres of land in the Gardi area on Tuesday and Wednesday.

–Abdul Mueed Hashmi

mas/mud

NANGARHAR: Six insurgents were killed as a result of an airstrike by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in eastern Nangarhar province, officials said on Wednesday.

The militants were targeted on Tuesday after they fired rockets toward an ISAF helicopter in the Khwaran area of Khogyani district, the provincial police chief, Brig. Gen. Abdullah Stanikzai, told Pajhwok Afghan News.

Hajji Abdul Khaleq, a tribal elder, said the fighters attacked the helicopter near the military base of foreign troops, but they were shot dead in retaliatory strike. The victims’ bodies were transferred to Khogyani district hospital by the area people.

Taliban confirmed the casualties with their spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid claiming four foreign and 10 Afghan soldiers had been killed in the clash. However officials called the claim as groundless.

—Abdul Mueed Hashami

mrh/myn