Afghan National Security Forces, partnering with International Security Assistance Forces, continued to conduct offensive maneuvers today aimed at setting security conditions for the upcoming parliamentary elections.
The operation, which began Saturday with an air assault of troops from the 201st Corps of the Afghan National Army, U.S. and French soldiers, is focused on clearing Kabul province and rooting out enemy insurgent fighters.
The joint force has killed more than 35 Taliban fighters and captured several key Taliban facilitators in recent days, attempting to build on momentum from recently conducted offensive operations in the area.
In addition to insurgent fighters captured and killed, the joint force has recovered an assortment of bomb-making material including detonator cord, blasting caps, seven 82mm mortar rounds, 24 anti-tank mines, approximately 50 rocket-propelled grenades, and an unknown amount of homemade explosives used to make improvised explosive devices and suicide vests.
"What we are seeing are the metrics of a successful operation in an area that the enemy used to feel pretty secure operating in," said U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Steve Townsend, deputy commanding general of Coalition Joint Task Force-101 and Regional Command-East. "We are finding the raw materials used in IED construction and encountering an enemy that is clearly not happy that we are there."
The munitions were destroyed in place to prevent their use against Afghan and coalition forces as well as Afghan civilians.
"We will continue to prepare the region to conduct a safe, successful election that is free of violence and intimidation by individuals that don't want to see Afghanistan move ahead," added Townsend.
Article by ISAF Joint Command