Troops Detain Suspect, Treat Taliban Gunfire Victim in Afghanistan

Dispatches from the Front:

WASHINGTON, Nov. 15, 2007 (AFPS) -- Afghan and coalition forces detained one suspect and treated a woman victimized by Taliban gunfire in Afghanistan in recent days, military officials said.

Combined forces detained one suspect in a Nov. 13 operation to disrupt foreign-fighter facilitators in the Qalat district of Zabul province.

Actionable intelligence led coalition forces to compounds in the district where they searched for militant facilitators thought to be hiding in the area. Troops found and detained a person with alleged links to foreign-fighter-facilitation operations, as well as other extremist activities, officials said. Some damage occurred to a building during the course of the operation, officials said.

"Afghan and coalition forces are aggressively dismantling the foreign-fighter facilitator networks in Afghanistan," said Army Maj. Chris Belcher, a Combined Joint Task Force 82 spokesman.

In the Shaheed Hasas district of Oruzgan province Nov. 13, Taliban fighters shot a woman for refusing to help supply their ranks.

"The Taliban came to her tribal camp asking for food and supplies," an unidentified detachment commander said. "The tribal elders explained they did not have any extra food to give the Taliban, and that they were in short supply themselves, ... (so) the Taliban retaliated by shooting at the civilian residents' homes."

In the shooting, an Afghan woman received a gunshot wound to the hand. Her husband brought her to a coalition base, where coalition medical staff determined that the wound required extensive treatment at a more sophisticated facility. Friendly forces treated the woman's wound and medically evacuated her, along with her escort, for further treatment.

"The Taliban continue to display their brutality," Belcher said. "Fortunately, the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Afghan national security forces, and coalition forces continue to improve their ability to provide emergency services to the people of Afghanistan."

(Compiled from Combined Joint Task Force 82 news releases.)

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