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08-06-2009, 07:00 PM
Afghan Insurgent Training Camp Destroyed
August 06, 2009
Long War Journal|by Bill Roggio
A combined Afghan and US strike force killed 18 Haqqani Network fighters during a raid on a "stronghold in the remote mountains" of Afghanistan's eastern province of Khost.
The intelligence-driven raid, which took place on Aug. 4, targeted "a Haqqani commander responsible for facilitating foreign fighters, weapons, IEDs, and other explosive materials in the region," a press release by the International Security Assistance Force stated. The Haqqani commander was not named.
The combined force took heavy fire from the Haqqani Network fighters as they advanced on the Haqqani Network's mountaintop base. A Haqqani suicide bomber unsuccessfully attempted to attack the Afghan and US troops, while supporting forces opened fire with rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns.
US and Afghan troops returned fire and called in airstrikes to defeat the Haqqani Network's defense, and killed 18 fighters while overrunning the outpost. No US or Afghan troops were killed or wounded during the operation.
The outpost is also thought to have served as a training camp. Coalition troops found an "array of bunkers, tents and lean-to structures that indicated an active training site," ISAF reported. Soldiers found materials to make roadside bombs, as well as assault rifles, RPGs, heavy machine guns, hand grenades, and communications equipment at the site.
The US and Afghan military have heavily targeted Haqqani Network bases in eastern Afghanistan over the past two months. US and Afghan forces have also conducted raids against Haqqani Network cells on a near-daily basis during this period. Sirajuddin Haqqani, the senior military commander of the Haqqani Network, and Mullah Sangeen Zadran, Siraj's senior command, have been directly targeted during raids and strikes in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Two other large Haqqani Network bases have been taken out since late May. On May 28, US and Afghan forces assaulted a heavily defended fort in the mountains in the Wor Mamay district in the eastern province of Paktika near the Pakistani border. Twenty-nine Haqqani Network fighters, including six failed suicide bombers, were killed during the raid. Sangeen, who was the target of the raid, escaped the battle.
On July 17, US and Afghan forces destroyed a Haqqani Network "encampment" situated in the remote reaches of Paktia province. The operation was designed to stem the flow of foreign fighters and weapons moving from Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agencies of North and South Waziristan through the Khost-Gardez Pass to the capital of Kabul. The combined force killed "several" Haqqani Network fighters. In addition, several massive weapons caches were destroyed after US and Afghan forces overran the base.
Siraj and Sangeen were also the targets of US airstrikes in South Waziristan in June. Several strikes occurred after the US received information that Siraj was attending a high-level al Qaeda and Taliban meeting to advise a Pakistani Taliban leader on his options against the Pakistani military [see LWJ report Senior Taliban leaders targeted in yesterday's Predator strikes]. In another strike, Sangeen, Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, and his deputy Qari Hussain Mehsud were targeted at the funeral of a mid-level Taliban commander in South Waziristan.
http://www.military.com/news/article/August-2009/afghan-insurgent-training-camp-destroyed.html?wh=news
August 06, 2009
Long War Journal|by Bill Roggio
A combined Afghan and US strike force killed 18 Haqqani Network fighters during a raid on a "stronghold in the remote mountains" of Afghanistan's eastern province of Khost.
The intelligence-driven raid, which took place on Aug. 4, targeted "a Haqqani commander responsible for facilitating foreign fighters, weapons, IEDs, and other explosive materials in the region," a press release by the International Security Assistance Force stated. The Haqqani commander was not named.
The combined force took heavy fire from the Haqqani Network fighters as they advanced on the Haqqani Network's mountaintop base. A Haqqani suicide bomber unsuccessfully attempted to attack the Afghan and US troops, while supporting forces opened fire with rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns.
US and Afghan troops returned fire and called in airstrikes to defeat the Haqqani Network's defense, and killed 18 fighters while overrunning the outpost. No US or Afghan troops were killed or wounded during the operation.
The outpost is also thought to have served as a training camp. Coalition troops found an "array of bunkers, tents and lean-to structures that indicated an active training site," ISAF reported. Soldiers found materials to make roadside bombs, as well as assault rifles, RPGs, heavy machine guns, hand grenades, and communications equipment at the site.
The US and Afghan military have heavily targeted Haqqani Network bases in eastern Afghanistan over the past two months. US and Afghan forces have also conducted raids against Haqqani Network cells on a near-daily basis during this period. Sirajuddin Haqqani, the senior military commander of the Haqqani Network, and Mullah Sangeen Zadran, Siraj's senior command, have been directly targeted during raids and strikes in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Two other large Haqqani Network bases have been taken out since late May. On May 28, US and Afghan forces assaulted a heavily defended fort in the mountains in the Wor Mamay district in the eastern province of Paktika near the Pakistani border. Twenty-nine Haqqani Network fighters, including six failed suicide bombers, were killed during the raid. Sangeen, who was the target of the raid, escaped the battle.
On July 17, US and Afghan forces destroyed a Haqqani Network "encampment" situated in the remote reaches of Paktia province. The operation was designed to stem the flow of foreign fighters and weapons moving from Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agencies of North and South Waziristan through the Khost-Gardez Pass to the capital of Kabul. The combined force killed "several" Haqqani Network fighters. In addition, several massive weapons caches were destroyed after US and Afghan forces overran the base.
Siraj and Sangeen were also the targets of US airstrikes in South Waziristan in June. Several strikes occurred after the US received information that Siraj was attending a high-level al Qaeda and Taliban meeting to advise a Pakistani Taliban leader on his options against the Pakistani military [see LWJ report Senior Taliban leaders targeted in yesterday's Predator strikes]. In another strike, Sangeen, Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, and his deputy Qari Hussain Mehsud were targeted at the funeral of a mid-level Taliban commander in South Waziristan.
http://www.military.com/news/article/August-2009/afghan-insurgent-training-camp-destroyed.html?wh=news