OEF Update, Dec. 6, 2009: Operations conducted in Laghman, Kandahar and Ghanzi Provinces; US Casualty

Dispatches from the Front:

KABUL, Afghanistan, Dec. 6, 2009 -- An international security force carried out an air strike early this morning and killed a group of enemy militants in Laghman province who placed IEDs along a road near the village of Hakimabad in the Arlingar district.

After the air strike, Afghan-international security forces cleared the site, found the IEDs and destroyed them.

Also today, an Afghan-international security force detained a Taliban commander and another militant after searching a compound in Kandahar province. The commander is responsible for several IED and suicide bomb attacks and for distributing arms and IED materials to insurgents in the area.

The joint security force targeted a compound near the village of Rigwai Sofla in the Panjawi district where reliable intelligence sources said the Taliban commander was located. The compound was searched without incident and two militants were detained, including the Taliban commander.

In Ghanzi province, another Afghan-international security force searched a compound near the village of Mian Kheyl in Wali Mohammad Shaheed district without incident. The security force detained one suspected militant.

In a separate operation late yesterday, an Afghan-international security force detained a group of militants while searching for a senior Taliban commander in northern Kandahar province. The commander is responsible for several attacks and distributing weapons and IED materials to other militant forces in the area.

Several militants were killed when they attacked the joint force while searching a compound near the village of Shotor Gardan in the Khakriz district where the commander was believed to be located.

No civilians were harmed during any of these operations.

ISAF Casualty:

An ISAF servicemember from the United States was killed when his unit encountered an IED in eastern Afghanistan yesterday.

(Compiled from NATO International Security Assistance Force news releases.)