“The Third Jihad” Movie

Taliban Blusters While It’s Leadership Dies

If you understand why the Afghan tribal leaders have endorsed President Hamid Karzai’s plan to seek peace with the Taliban, on the final day of national peace talks in Kabul, you understand the principle of , Fight, Negotiate, Fight, Negotiate. Even thought the “peace jirga” ended by backing an amnesty and job incentives to induce militants to give up arms, the political desires of the Taliban are still going to be advanced by threats and intimidation.

Terrorist groups have said in the past that it would negotiate with the government only once foreign troops had left the country. This kind of bluster threatens to extend Taliban influence over the weak minded public, and not one inch in the field of battle. As the following story points out the number of terrorists available to make unreasonable demands is shrinking.

Taliban Leader’s Death Confirmed; Forces Seize Insurgent Sub-Commander

Compiled from International Security Assistance Force Joint Command News Releases

WASHINGTON, June 4, 2010 – A Taliban sub-commander was captured and several other suspected insurgents were killed or captured yesterday by Afghan and international security forces, military officials reported.

Officials also confirmed the death last week of Mullah Zergay, the senior Taliban commander for Afghanistan’s Kandahar City region, during a firefight with Afghan-international forces during an operation in the Zharay district.

During an operation in Logar province yesterday, a combined force captured a Taliban sub-commander who is responsible for improvised explosive device and small-arms attacks against coalition forces. The combined force was searching a compound in the village of Muchkeyl in the Kharwar district after intelligence information confirmed insurgent activity.

When confronted, the Taliban sub-commander, who has ties to the Haqqani network, immediately surrendered and identified himself as the targeted insurgent.

Also yesterday, a separate Afghan-international security force action resulted in the detention of several individuals suspected of insurgent activity in Ghazni province. The combined force detained the suspected insurgents while searching a compound in the village of Bar Nowruzk, Qarah Bagh district, after intelligence information confirmed insurgent activity. No shots were fired and no one was harmed during the above operations.

During another operation yesterday, a coalition helicopter attacked and killed multiple insurgents as they were moving to a fighting position in Farah province. Aircraft were directed to a cave complex in a rural area of Gulistan district, after intelligence information verified insurgent activity. After observing widely separated groups of armed men moving to prepared fighting positions away from the caves, aircraft engaged a group, killing the insurgents. A ground search force found two automatic rifles, ammunition and a grenade.

Meanwhile, it has been confirmed that Mullah Zergay, the Taliban commander of the Kandahar city area, was killed last week by Afghan-international forces during an operation conducted in the Zharay district.

Zergay had directed insurgent activities in the Arghandab and Zharay districts, including Kandahar City. He used explosives in nearly all of his operations and was directly responsible for multiple deaths in Kandahar City, alone. He rose to power through violent intimidation campaigns against civilians and by leading kidnappings and executions of government employees and village elders.

After tracking his location for several weeks, an Afghan-international security force moved to capture Zergay in a Taliban safe haven area south of Kudeza’i in Zharay district. As the assault force approached, several armed insurgents attacked it with machine-gun fire and rocket propelled grenades.

The assault force returned fire and during the ensuing firefight Zergay and several members of his security detachment were killed. Zergay’s death is considered to be a major loss for the Taliban leadership in southern Afghanistan.

Afghanistan Battle Continues Successful Course

Forces Detain Insurgents, Seize Drugs, Weapons

Compiled from International Security Assistance Force Joint Command News Releases

WASHINGTON, May 21, 2010 – Afghan and international forces detained several insurgents and seized illegal drugs and weapons in recent operations in Afghanistan, military officials reported.

An Afghan-international security force pursuing a Taliban commander in Kandahar province detained two militants in the Zharay district last night.

The combined force went to a series of compounds after intelligence information indicated insurgent activity, and two men ran away as the force approached. The two men were captured after a lengthy chase. They told the patrol they were Pakistani fighters, and that they had rocket-propelled grenades and automatic rifles hidden at another location.

In Helmand province last night, a combined force searched a small compound northeast of Marja after intelligence information indicated insurgent activity and detained several suspects for questioning.

In Helmand’s Now Zad district yesterday, an International Security Assistance Force patrol found and confiscated 39 bags of suspected heroin with an estimated street value of $3 million. The drugs were confiscated.

In Helmand’s Nad-e Ali district yesterday, an Afghan-international patrol found an assault rifle, small-arms ammunition, five magazines and a bundle of electrical wire.

No Afghan civilians were harmed in these operations, officials said.

In other news from Afghanistan, an ISAF helicopter was struck by an insurgent-fired rocket-propelled grenade today as it prepared to land at a checkpoint in Nad-e Ali. No one was seriously injured, officials said. The helicopter is at a secure site and a damage assessment is under way.

Chairman Mao Murders Thirty People In India

It is evident that the evil Mao has spawned is alive and well after a land mine attack in Chhattisgarh state killed more than 30 people. The civilians killed in were not accidental victims of an errant attack. This is the tactics that Mao learned, used and espoused.

Most of those killed in Monday’s blast, which destroyed a bus, were civilians, and the government is under pressure to take a tougher line against the rebels.

The Indian government is thought to want to include the use of air power to fight the Maoists. Thousands have died in the their decades-long fight against humanity and the Indian state.

In this incident it appears that Maoist supporters saw that armed police were on board the bus, and an attack was organized extremely quickly. It is clearly an attack against a target that violates the law of necessity and proportionality. Anything from the BBC, no. But the Indian government says it also demonstrates their barbarity.

“I took to the cabinet committee the case for a larger mandate. I was given a limited mandate. Now we will go back to the cabinet committee to revisit that mandate,” Mr Chidambaram told the NDTV channel.

He said the chief ministers of some of the worst-affected states had asked for air power to be used against the rebels reports the BBC, a measure that the government has so far refused to sanction.

“Operation Green Hunt” began last October, it involves 50,000 members of the police and militia troops and is taking place across five states in India: West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Orissa and Chhattisgarh.

Monday’s attack on the bus in Chhattisgarh state’s Dantewada district has prompted widespread anger and the BBC is doing its best to stamp it out. As the BBC points out, the Maoists have warned civilian bus companies not to transport local police or members of the security forces. This, in the eyes of the BBC, and hopefully yours, makes the Maoists less evil.

The Maoists support has been slipping away from the rebels, particularly after last month’s attack.

Manmohan Singh described by Prime Minister the Maoist insurgency as the country’s biggest internal security threat. The communist inspired BBC would be described by me as number two. Delhi have accept that there is a need to tackle the root causes of the rebellion, such as poverty and the absence of effective local government, but not yet the media that throws gas on the fire.

Chairman Mao initially supported Maoist-style Communist parties in Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, Burma, India and Thailand. The Malaysian Communist Party launched an armed rebellion, which the Chairman supported until it became clear that the guerrillas were losing. At the Bandung Conference, a conciliatory Zhou Enlai declared that those Chinese who adopted another nationality should be good citizens of the countries they joined. But this pious statement did not completely allay suspicions that Mao was encouraging indigenous Communist movements among the “bridge compatriots” of Southeast Asia.

Nehru insisted on recognizing China’s “rights” in Tibet despite the pleas of the Tibetans, along with many Indians, that he weighed in against this new form of Chinese hegemony. His appeasement of the “New China” came back to haunt him in 1959 when Mao, having disposed of the Dalai Lama and his followers, began building military roads right up to the existing Indian-Tibetan border, and then, in early September, ordered troops to cross over into India.

Mao’s aggression took Nehru completely by surprise, which is perhaps less a consequence of his naiveté than of Zhou Enlai’s sophisticated sales pitch about the two countries being fellow victims of the Western imperial powers. The Chinese premier had first visited him in New Delhi in April 1954, stopping over on his way back to China from the signing the Geneva peace accord on Indochina. Zhou played the second international stratagem to the hilt, portraying the PRC as a country with impeccable anti-colonialist, anti-imperialist credentials, a country that was a natural member of the Third World club. Nehru agreed.

An Indian delegation at the U.N. had argued on behalf of Communist China’s admission. On that very day that the Chairman sent Chinese forces pouring across the border into India. As Nehru pondered Mao’s perfidy, PLA troops continued their march southward, seizing two important mountain passes that guard approaches to Sikkim and India.

Professor John K. Fairbank of Harvard, for example, wrote in the Atlantic Monthly in 1957 that the regime’s controls over “prices, person and minds, mobilizing of patriotic youth, collectivizing the rural economy and pushing of industrialization” were “remarkable successes” and great achievements.” Not a word about the Maoist terrors that now held the Chinese people in a grip of fear, nor about Mao’s larger aims.

Fascist Chinese Seek World Control

YouTube – Fascist Chinese Seek World Control.

China Military Power Report released

World peace and development are faced with multiple difficulties and challenges. Struggles for strategic
resources, strategic locations and strategic dominance have intensified.
Chinas National Defense in 2008

http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/pdfs/…

http://windsofchange.net/archives/005…
Neo-Fascism & China’s Future
By Joe Katzman on August 27, 2004 4:25 AM

In my Normblog interview, I was asked about threats to the future peace and stability of the world. Islamofascism was #1, of course, but I also spent a bit of time explaining my worries about one possible future for China: a future of state capitalism under dictatorial control, a strong need for external resources to fuel that economy, carefully fostered xenophobia, a legacy of belief in the racial superiority of Chinese peoples, a major demographic problem in an excess of young males, and the meme that China is being cheated of its rightful place in the world. Germany’s history in the 20th century teaches us what this combination portends.

See also: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3Hbcl…

And: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YAEbQ…

Fascism has found adherents in all countries. Its essentially vague and emotional nature facilitates the development of unique national varieties, whose leaders often deny indignantly that they are fascists at all. In its dictatorial methods and in its use of brutal intimidation of the opposition by the militia and the secret police, fascism does not greatly distinguish itself from other despotic and totalitarian regimes. There are particular similarities with the Communist regime in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin. However, unlike Communism, fascism abhors the idea of a classless society and sees desirable order only in a state in which each class has its distinct place and function. Representation by classes (i.e., capital, labor, farmers, and professionals) is substituted for representation by parties, and the corporative state is a part of fascist dogma.

Fascism, especially in its early stages, is obliged to be antitheoretical and frankly opportunistic in order to appeal to many diverse groups. Nevertheless, a few key concepts are basic to it. First and most important is the glorification of the state and the total subordination of the individual to it. The state is defined as an organic whole into which individuals must be absorbed for their own and the state’s benefit. This “total state” is absolute in its methods and unlimited by law in its control and direction of its citizens.

A second ruling concept of fascism is embodied in the theory of social Darwinism. The doctrine of survival of the fittest and the necessity of struggle for life is applied by fascists to the life of a nation-state. Peaceful, complacent nations are seen as doomed to fall before more dynamic ones, making struggle and aggressive militarism a leading characteristic of the fascist state. Imperialism is the logical outcome of this dogma.

Another element of fascism is its elitism. Salvation from rule by the mob and the destruction of the existing social order can be effected only by an authoritarian leader who embodies the highest ideals of the nation.

This is the Chinese response to the report:

I know that “essentially vague and emotional nature” is the picture evoked by the CCTV response.

Taliban Increasing Afghani Resolve To Resist Them

Afghan Civilians, Government Join Forces to Defeat and Remove Taliban
ISAF Joint Command More Stories from ISAF Joint Command RSS

Date: 04.27.2010
Posted: 04.27.2010 08:35

KABUL, Afghanistan – Gizab District, locked centrally in the Hazarajet region of Afghanistan, recently was the scene of community resolve and determination when citizens took action to remove a Taliban threat from their village. The government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, with minimal involvement by coalition forces, is assisting Gizab residents in their effort to purge the Taliban from the area.

With harassment by the Taliban increasing, local villagers held a shura and decided to establish a road block Wednesday in an effort to detain insurgents. This action led to the apprehension of several insurgents as well as their weapons and motorbikes. A Taliban commander, responsible for coordinating attacks against coalition special forces in the area, was among those apprehended at the road block.

Later that afternoon, Taliban insurgents armed with small-arms and rocket-propelled grenades were preparing to attack the village. Local citizens, defending their homes and families, engaged the insurgents in a battle that lasted more than three days.

A combined patrol of Afghanistan national security force and International Security Assistance Force partners was conducting an operation nearby and responded, enhancing security at the village stronghold.

After three days of fighting, the insurgents were defeated and driven out of Gizab. Between the villagers and combined patrol, several insurgents were killed and four were arrested.

In the subsequent days, hostile action in the area has diminished, providing an opportunity for the governor of Dai Kundi, the provincial governor of neighbouring Uruzgan province, the local Malik and 20 other community leaders to travel to Gizab District for a meeting to announce their support for GIRoA and elect a district chief of police.

The combined force also attended the meeting Saturday to demonstrate their support for the people of Gizab and GIRoA. The combined force was warmly received by the villagers and leaders who said they were grateful for GIRoA’s support.

During the meeting, the deputy governor placed a phone call to President Hamid Karzai, who spoke to local elders and leaders and voiced his pleasure with the cooperation between the different elements, which ultimately removed 50 active Taliban fighters from the region.

“The villagers’ decision to react was fueled by Taliban members routinely exerting their influence and control over the people in the southern District of Gizab,” said Capt. Rebecca Lykins, a Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force-Afghanistan spokesman. “Their reaction is a testament to their confidence in GIRoA’s ability to protect and serve the populace.”

Taliban Reintegrated in Baghlan

ISAF Joint Command
Date: 04.26.2010
Posted: 04.26.2010 04:50

KABUL, Afghanistan – Eight Taliban insurgents walked up to the gates of a forward operating base in Puza-i-Eshan Saturday to turn themselves in to Afghan national security forces.

The departure from the Taliban came in the midst of Operation Taohid II, an Afghan-led operation in the north designed to defeat the insurgency, provide humanitarian supplies to the people and enable development projects in the area.

Gen. Murad Ali Murad, Afghan national army 209th Corps commander held a shura with the Taliban members to negotiate the terms of their reintegration. Brig. Gen. Frank Leidenberger, Regional Command-North commander also attended.

“This is your country, when you fight against us here you fight against your own country,” Murad said. “An hour ago, you were part of the black name of the Taliban, but now we welcome you back as our brothers.”

Operation Taohid II is the largest operation the ANSF have led in the north. About 1,000 combat-ready Afghan national army troops are taking part in the operation, supported by ISAF troops from Germany, the United States, Sweden, Finland, Croatia and Belgium.

One indicator of the operation’s success was the securing of the Kuk Chenar (Dutch) Bridge and the return of large groups of civilians who had been frightened away by insurgents.

Civilian freedom of movement is now being further improved as work continues around the bridge’s base along the river. A large number of trucks have been removing loads of the river’s sludge to aid the flow of the river. Guard posts have been stationed on either end of the bridge to provide safe passage for residents.

Also:

Afghan Civilians, Government Join Forces to Defeat and Remove Taliban

Gizab District, locked centrally in the Hazarajet region of Afghanistan, recently was the scene of community resolve and determination when citizens took action to remove a Taliban threat from their village. The government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, with minimal involvement by coalition forces, is assisting Gizab residents in their effort to purge the Taliban from the area.
04.27.10, Courtesy Story

Afghanistan Surge Providing Progress

Air Strike in Afghanistan Kills Senior Insurgents

Compiled from International Security Assistance Force Joint Command News Releases

WASHINGTON, April 26, 2010 – A senior militant commander in Afghanistan’s Kunduz province and two of his top advisors were killed in a precision air strike in northern Kunduz this morning, military officials reported.

The senior insurgents were driving through a rural desert area northeast of Kunduz City when they were struck by precision air fire.

The senior Taliban commander was involved in all aspects of insurgent operations in Kunduz province, officials said. He was responsible for setting target priorities, weapons distribution and directing attacks against coalition and Afghan forces.

In other recent operations in Afghanistan:

— In Kandahar province this morning, a combined Afghan-international security force detained several suspected insurgents for questioning.

— In Helmand province’s Nad-e Ali district yesterday, a combined patrol found an assault rifle, magazines, 130 rounds of ammunition and 30 pounds of homemade explosives.

— Coalition forces patrolling in the Dzadran district of Paktia province yesterday found 17 rocket-propelled grenades, nine fuses, four rear stabilizers and 300 heavy machine gun rounds. One individual was detained.

— An Afghan-international security force killed one militant and detained a few others as they pursued a Taliban leader in Kunduz the night of April 24. As the combined force approached a compound after intelligence reports of militant activity, they were confronted by an armed man, who was shot and killed.

— In Helmand on April 24, a combined force tried to stop a vehicle driven by the suspected militants. The driver didn’t comply and tried to escape. Shots were exchanged, and three insurgents were killed, including a Taliban commander responsible for assigning fighters and setting attack priorities in his area and involved in weapons delivery and battle-damage assessments after attacks on coalition forces. A search of the vehicle uncovered an automatic rifle and multiple grenades.

— Also on April 24, an Afghan civilian directed a combined patrol in Helmand’s Washer district to a cache containing 25 pounds of refined opium, an assault rifle, several magazines and a chest-bomb rig.

— In Helmand’s Nad-e Ali district April 24, an Afghan-international patrol found and destroyed five 60 mm mortar rounds.

— A combined Afghan-international security force captured a Taliban subcommander and a suspected insurgent and killed several other insurgents in Logar province April 24. As the assault force conducted a call-out, they were confronted by armed men, who were shot and killed. The Taliban subcommander, believed to be involved in planning suicide attacks, surrendered. A search of the area found several weapons, including an automatic rifle and pistols.

— In Kunduz’s Archi district the night of April 23, a combined Afghan-international security force was engaged with small-arms fire. The combined force returned fire, killing several insurgents and detaining a few others. Two of those killed were Taliban commanders, one of them being the target of the raid, who was responsible for distributing insurgent funds, designating targets and planning bombings. Though women and children were in the compound buildings, none were injured during the operation. The homeowner told the patrol the Taliban had forced their way into the compound for the night. International forces will reimburse the homeowner for minor damage to his property. A search of the buildings yielded automatic rifles, a machine gun, a rocket-propelled grenade, hand grenades and other weapons.

— In Khost province April 24, a combined force detained a suspected insurgent while hunting for a Haqqani terrorist network commander.

— In Helmand’s Nad-e Ali district April 24, a combined patrol found two shotguns, 40 pounds of opium, small-arms ammunition and various electrical components, as well as another cache consisting of two pressure plate initiation devices 40 pounds of homemade explosives.

— One militant was killed and several others captured by an Afghan-international security force pursuing a Taliban facilitator in Ghazni province the night of April 22. As the force approached the targeted compound, several men ran away. One insurgent moved toward the security force in a hostile manner and was shot and killed. Several other suspected insurgents were captured.

— Also on the night of April 22, a combined force in Khost’s Terezai district captured a Haqqani network bombing-attack facilitator and another suspected insurgent. Ammonium nitrate, aluminum powder and rifles were found on site.

— In Kunduz province’s Chahar Darah district the night of April 22, a combined security force detained a suspected insurgent for questioning. An armed man ran from the compound and later fired on the security force. He was shot and killed.

— In Nangarhar province’s Khogyani district the night of April 22, a combined force captured a Taliban subcommander responsible for directing roadside-bomb and rocket-propelled grenade attacks on coalition forces, along with another suspected insurgent.

— The same night in Helmand’s Reg-e Khan Neshin district, a combined force found a roadside bomb, three roadside-bomb power sources, five spools of copper wire, an intelligence radio, two assault rifles with ammunition, brass knuckles and 88 pounds of raw opium. After coordination with the village elder, the combined force detained more than 20 men in the compound.

— In Helmand’s Garm Ser district that night, an Afghan-international patrol acting on a tip from an Afghan civilian found 50 chest rigs and 19 magazines.

— A combined patrol found nine grenades, four rocket-propelled grenades, small-arms ammunition, homemade explosives, a timer and detonation cord in the Chorah district of Uruzgan province April 22.

–– A combined security force in Logar province’s Pul-e Alam district killed five insurgents the night of April 22 after receiving sustained heavy gunfire from a compound. A search yielded multiple automatic rifles, armor-piercing rounds, bomb-making materials and blasting caps. A Taliban suicide attack commander with ties to the Haqqani network was killed in the firefight, along with four other insurgents.

Two U.S. servicemembers died of wounds suffered in the firefight.

No civilians were reported harmed in these operations, officials said.

Taliban Mosque Assassination, The True Religious Values Of Islam

Assassination Shows Taliban’s Values, Petraeus Says

By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, April 22, 2010 – The assassination of the deputy mayor of Kandahar, Afghanistan, as he prayed in a mosque this week reflects the values of a barbaric enemy, the commander of U.S. Central Command said in a statement released yesterday.

Azizullah Yarmal was attending evening prayers April 19 when a death squad entered the mosque and shot him dead before escaping.

In his statement, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus said the murder “demonstrated the Taliban’s barbarism.”

“That they would kill this Afghan leader while he was attending services in a mosque illustrates the Taliban’s callous disregard for Afghanistan’s values and for Islam itself,” the general said. “Through this action, the Taliban demonstrated once again that it is an enemy of Afghanistan that seeks to impose through violence its extremist ideology and oppressive practices on the Afghan people.”

Yarmal’s assassination was the second cold-blooded Taliban murder of a local Afghan leader in a week. Taliban gunmen also killed Lal Mohammad Khan, a tribal leader in neighboring Helmand province, last week.

In Kabul, NATO Ambassador to Afghanistan Mark Sedwill noted that Yarmal was always pushing for roads, electricity and services for his people.

“That’s a man who’s trying to serve the people of Afghanistan, and he was killed deliberately by the insurgents in what is no less than a terrorist attack,” he said.

The murder came as the Afghan government and security forces, along with coalition forces, seek to make Kandahar secure. The city is the second-largest in Afghanistan, and is the spiritual home of the Pashtu-dominated Taliban.

Officials said operations in and around Kandahar don’t constitute an offensive in the military sense of the word. Rather, they explained, the Afghan government and coalition personnel are working bring services and infrastructure improvements to the city. The hope is that Afghans will see the Taliban are trying to stop progress and will side with the government.

Regional Command South is the focus of operations in Afghanistan this year. British Maj. Gen. Nick Carter commands the more than 54,500 coalition troops in the region. The bulk of the U.S. 30,000-troop surge will operate in Regional Command South.

Abu Suhaib Killed By Iraqi Forces

Crackdown Continues on al-Qaida in Iraq

Compiled from U.S. Forces Iraq News Releases

WASHINGTON, April 21, 2010 – Iraqi forces working with U.S. advisors killed one senior al-Qaida in Iraq leader and captured two others in recent operations in Mosul, military officials reported.

In eastern Mosul yesterday, Iraqi forces and U.S. advisors cornered Ahmad Ali Abbas Dahir al-Ubayd, also known as Abu Suhaib, the suspected military leader for the terror organization in northern Iraq. He allegedly is responsible for oversight of both bombing attacks against the Iraqi government and the people of Mosul.

Ubayd refused to leave the building where he was hiding. Instead, he fired at Iraqi forces, who returned fire and killed him.

In a separate combined operation in Mosul yesterday, Iraqi forces working with U.S. advisors arrested a suspected senior al-Qaida in Iraq leader who allegedly is responsible for the consolidation and distribution of the terror organization’s funds in northern Iraq.

Also in Mosul, Iraqi forces and U.S. advisors captured a suspected al-Qaida in Iraq leader who allegedly is responsible for coordinating couriers to connect all aspects of the terror organization from Mosul to Baghdad in an April 19 operation. A suspected criminal associate was captured with him.

Also:
From an International Security Assistance Force Joint Command News Release

WASHINGTON, April 21, 2010 – Afghan and international forces detained numerous suspected insurgents and seized illegal weapons in recent operations throughout Afghanistan, military officials reported.

In Kandahar province’s Arghandab district last night, a combined Afghan-international security force captured a suspected Taliban bomb expert believed to be responsible for building and emplacing roadside bombs himself and leading a roadside-bomb cell. Nearly a dozen other suspected insurgents also were captured in the raid.

In Kandahar’s Spin Boldak district yesterday, an Afghan border police unit discovered a significant amount of ammonium nitrate and other bomb-making equipment while inspecting vehicles. The border police recovered more than 3,200 pounds of ammonium nitrate — a banned fertilizer often used in making homemade bombs — as well as 12 sticks of a substance believed to be TNT and 800 blasting caps. They detained a man in connection with the find.

East of Marja in Helmand province yesterday, Afghan forces working with International Security Assistance Force partners conducted a combined operation to continue disrupting links between insurgent suicide bombers and narcotics networks. After surrounding a compound in which a man associated with suicide bombing attacks was believed to be located, Afghan special police were able to get all residents to leave. One man was detained, and the patrol found an assault rifle, a shotgun and 66 pounds of opium. One woman and four children were protected throughout this operation, in which no civilians were injured, officials said.

Yesterday in Kandahar, an ISAF patrol found a cache containing four rocket-propelled grenades, an RPG launcher, 20 grenades, three rifle grenades, a machine gun, four assault rifles and a large quantity of small-arms ammunition.

In Kunar yesterday, an Afghan-international combined force captured a Taliban facilitator who also is associated with the Hezb-E Islami Gulbuddin terror organization. The combined force established a roadblock northeast of Karbun, along the border of the Shaikal Shate and Dangam districts, after intelligence information indicated insurgent activity. The combined force surrounded an approaching vehicle and captured the facilitator, who identified himself and surrendered when confronted.

In Helmand’s Nad-e Ali district yesterday, a combined patrol found eight grenades, three claymore mines, four artillery rounds, 22 grenades and an RPG.

No shots were fired, and no Afghan civilians were harmed during these operations, officials said.

In other news from Afghanistan, ISAF Joint Command officials released a statement backing off from part of its official account of an April 19 incident in which four people were killed.

“The term ‘insurgent’ should not have been used to describe two occupants of a vehicle involved in an escalation-of-force incident in Khost province Monday,” the statement said.

Based on initial operational reports, two of the four people killed in a vehicle that approached an ISAF convoy were described as “known insurgents” in an ISAF Joint Command news release about the incident, the statement continued. Officials explained that their fingerprints matched identities contained in a biometric database for previous insurgent activity, and that while it is accurate to say they were in the database, that fact has not yet been determined to be relevant to the incident.

“We sincerely regret this tragic loss of life. Commanders at all levels are increasing efforts to protect the Afghan people affected by our operations,” Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Mike Regner, deputy chief of staff for joint operations at ISAF Joint Command. “Additionally, we are deploying training teams from this headquarters in the coming days to travel throughout Afghanistan to ensure all our troops understand the commander’s guidance and implement critical lessons learned from previous incidents.”

An assessment team made up of ISAF and Afghan forces continues to review the incident in Khost, officials said, and a formal, more thorough joint investigation also may be conducted.