OEF Summary, Feb. 6, 2009: Troops Disrupt Bombing Cells in Afghanistan

Dispatches from the Front:

KABUL, Afghanistan, Feb. 6, 2009 -- Afghan and coalition forces yesterday killed seven militants and detained 12 suspects during operations designed to disrupt a roadside-bomb cell in Afghanistan’s Zabol province and capture people believed to be connected to a recent attack on a coalition base in Khowst province.

In Khowst’s Maghzoori district, southeast of Kabul, Afghan and coalition forces conducted operations against a cell believed to have carried out a January vehicle-bomb attack on a coalition base in the province.

After the combined force arrived at the targeted compound, they called out for women and children to leave the buildings. Once the noncombatants were moved to safety, the strike force entered one of the buildings and killed an armed combatant.

In the compound, the combined force found timers and other bomb-making materials, assault rifles, pistols, and more than 400 rounds of ammunition. Nine suspected militants were detained.

In Zabol’s Jeldak district, northeast of Kandahar, coalition forces conducted an operation aimed at disrupting the cell responsible for conducting attacks against local civilians and Afghan and coalition forces.

When the force arrived at the targeted compound and moved 24 women and 45 children to safety, three suspects were detained without incident. Believing militants were hiding in a nearby cave, coalition forces pursued them. Six militants were killed in the ensuing engagement.

(From a U.S. Forces Afghanistan news release.)

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