Free Republic

WASHINGTON, July 7, 2006 – Villagers captured an extremist who threw a grenade into a mosque in the village of Showbi in the Tere Zayi district of Afghanistan's Khost province today during prayer, military officials reported. The grenade injured three men, including the mullah, who were taken to the coalition hospital in Khost for treatment. The villagers chased the assailant down and captured him, then notified coalition forces. Afghan police took the assailant into custody. "Extremists continue to conduct needless attacks on Afghan civilians to threaten and intimidate them in the hopes they won't support a free and growing Afghanistan,"...

WASHINGTON, July 6, 2006 – Coalition forces killed 35 Taliban extremists at a compound in the village of Ghach Zar, Afghanistan, July 4 as part of Operation Mountain Thrust. No injuries to coalition forces or noncombatants were observed during the strike, military officials said. Several of the extremists killed were Taliban leaders who planned and conducted multiple attacks against Afghan government officials and coalition forces, officials said. Operation Mountain Thrust is part of an ongoing campaign to disrupt enemy forces, interdict safe havens, extend the reach of the Afghan government, and facilitate good governance, reconstruction and humanitarian assistance. (From a...

WASHINGTON, June 30, 2006 – Coalition forces in Afghanistan today killed 14 enemy fighters at a Taliban safe house and killed one enemy fighter and captured eight others in a separate raid, military officials reported. A coalition patrol in the Kamdesh district in Nuristan province tracked a band of 14 extremists traveling with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades and attacked them once they reached their safe house, destroying two buildings in the compound, officials said. Afghan National Army and coalition forces seized the compound and identified 14 dead enemy combatants. No ANA or coalition soldiers or civilians were injured in the...