ISAF continues to hunt al Qaeda operatives and Taliban commanders who support them in the Afghan east. Yesterday, a Taliban fighter was killed during a raid that targeted a commander who “is closely associated with a number of Taliban leaders who are currently facilitating al Qaeda foreign fighters in the region.” From the ISAF press release:
A combined Afghan and coalition security force killed one insurgent and detained two while searching for a Taliban leader in Behsud District, Nangarhar province yesterday.
The Taliban leader is an al Qaeda affiliated insurgent operating in Wanat District, Kunar province and Waygal valley, Nuristan province. He is closely associated with a number of Taliban leaders who are currently facilitating al Qaeda foreign fighters in the region.
The Behsud district is a known hotspot for Taliban and al Qaeda activity in Nangarhar province. The Taliban have carried out two major attacks on Forward Operating Base Fenty in Behsud since November 2010.
Al Qaeda and allied Pakistani terror groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, Lashkar-e-Islam, and the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan all maintain a presence in Nangarhar province, according to an investigation by The Long War Journal. The presence of terror cells has been detected in the districts of Achin, Bati Kowt, Behsud, Chaparhar, Dara Noor, Deh Bala, Jalalabad, Khogyani, Pachir wa Agam, Sherzad, and Shinwar, or 11 of Nangarhar’s 22 districts.
Also, on May 3, ISAF and Afghan special operations forces killed Maulawi Afzal, “the senior Taliban leader leading and controlling all operations in Nangarhar province,” during raid in Chaparhar district (the press release reads April 3 but ISAF confirmed to The Long War Journal that the date of the operation that killed Afzal was indeed May 3).
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