Daily Security Brief: March 6, 2012

BADGHIS: Ten Taliban fighters were killed and another 13 wounded during an operation by Afghan National Army (ANA) troops in the Bala Murghab district of northwestern Badghis province on Tuesday, police said.

The operation in the Sakhri area was still ongoing, Col. Mohammad Jabbar Saleh, the provincial police chief, told Pajhwok Afghan News. The ANA personnel have suffered no casualties in the offensive that will continue until Wednesday.

Aminul Haq, an elder, said the soldiers arrived in the area early in the morning and started searching for rebels. The resident had no specific figure for Taliban casualties, but said he saw the fighters carrying their wounded comrades on shoulders.

The operation came nearly two weeks after a remote-controlled bomb blast killed six soldiers and wounded 16 others in Moqur district.

–Abdul Latif Ayubi

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FARAH: A police officer was killed and his colleague wounded in a militant attack in the western province of Farah, officials said on Sunday.

The incident happened when two gunmen on a motorcycle attacked a police checkpoint in the Shekhabad village on the outskirts of Farah City, the governor’s spokesman said.

Naqibullah Farahi told Pajhwok Afghan News the 30-minute attack took place at around 3am, leaving one police officer dead and another injured.

The injured policeman was evacuated in critical condition to a health), Public Health Director Abdul Jabar Shaiq said.

Separately, Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers and police seized two tonnes of explosives from a house in the Karez area of Bakwa district, police spokesman Col. Abdul Rauf Ahmadi said.

The house owner, Kala Khan, was detained in connection with the explosives and two vans, as many motorcycles and a Kalashnikov were seized, he said.

—Zahin

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KABUL: One militant was killed and four policemen and three civilians were wounded in separate bomb explosions on Tuesday, officials said.

The first blast took place near the Pakistani Consulate in Jalalabad, the capital of eastern Nangarhar province, at around 8am, a border police spokesman said.

Idrees Momand told Pajhwok Afghan News police commander Mohammad Ayub Hussainkhel and one of his bodyguards were injured in the blast that ripped through a convoy.

Separately, two policemen and three civilians were injured when an explosives-rigged bicycle went off in the Faiz Mohammad Khan Square of Khost City, the capital of southeastern Khost province, police chief Brig. Gen. Sardar Mohammad Zazai said.

Public Health Director Dr. Amir Badshah Rahmatzai confirmed receiving five injured people at the Khost Civil Hospital, saying that they were in stable condition.

Witness Sardar Wali said the explosion was so powerful that it shook the area.

In southern Helmand province, one fighter was killed and four others were injured when the bomb they were carrying exploded prematurely in the Malgir area of Grishk district, the governor’s spokesman said.

Daud Ahmadi said the incident took place late on Monday, when the rebels wanted to plant the explosive device on a road to target Afghan and international troops.

—Pajhwok Report

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KANDAHAR: Afghan police arrested two would-be Pakistani suicide attackers in the Maiwand district of southern Kandahar province, an official said on Tuesday.

Zalmay Ayubi, the governor’s spokesman, told Pajhwok Afghan News the detainees belonged to Pakistan’s northwestern tribal region of Waziristan. They were brought in by Afghans.

“They planned attacks on a number of targets in Kandahar and Helmand provinces,” Ayubi said, explaining the detainees’ Afghan collaborators had also been arrested.

Police recovered a number of explosive materials and sensitive documents from the four people men, according to the spokesman, who claimed they had been trained in Pakistan.

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KNADAHAR: Border police seized 12,000 kilograms of explosives near the Pakistani border in southern Kandahar province, an official said on Tuesday.

The explosives were being smuggled into the Shorabak district in three tractor-trolleys from the Gulistan area of Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, the governor’s spokesman said.

Zalmay Ayubi told Pajhwok Afghan News that the drivers managed to flee back to Pakistan and their vehicles had been impounded by police.

–Bashir Ahmad Naadem

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KANDAHAR: Security personnel seized one tonne of hashish and explosives in southern Kandahar province, an official said on Tuesday.

The seizure came in the Spindag area of Dand district during a search operation late on Monday, Zalmay Ayyubi, the governor’s spokesman, told Pajhwok Afghan News.

He said security forces seized 23 jerry cans full of explosives in the Zheri district. No arrests were made in connection with the drugs and explosives.

–Bashir Ahmad Naadem

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KUNDUZ: Three individual had been detained by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) for having links to the Taliban in northern Kunduz province, the alliances said on Tuesday.

In a brief statement, ISAF said the individuals were held during a joint operation by Afghan and international servicemembers. However, the force neither revealed the detainees’ nationalities nor the exact location of the operation.

But Syed Sarwar Hussaini, the provincial police spokesman, identified the men as Sher Mohammad, Najibullah and Mohammad Gul. He said three AK-47 assault rifles were also seized from the suspects in Aliabad district.

He told Pajhwok Afghan News one of the alleged militants was supplying insurgents with weapons and explosives. The rebels, who recently returned from Pakistan, were involved in roadside blasts and attacks against the Afghan and international troops, he concluded.

–Waheedullah

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NANGARHAR: A Taliban commander was killed during an airstrike by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in the eastern province of Laghman, officials said on Tuesday.

The US-led coalition conducted the strike in Alingar district on Tuesday morning, a statement from ISAF said. The NATO-led force, however, gave no further details.

The operation came after Maulvi Zahir’s telephone call was intercepted in the Noorulam Saheb area, the provincial police chief, Brig. Gen. Abdul Rahman Sarjang, told Pajhwok Afghan News.

But Alingar district chief, Syed Sharif Pacha, quoted residents as saying that a woman had been killed in the operation.

–Abdul Mueed Hashimi

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