Coalition and Afghan special operations forces attempted to capture the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan’s senior bomb maker in Afghanistan. From ISAF’s press release:
An Afghan and coalition security force conducted an operation to capture an Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan bomb-making expert in Kunduz district, Kunduz province, today. He is believed to be the senior bomb maker for the IMU in Afghanistan and supervises the construction of explosive devices for attacks against senior Afghan officials. The security force killed one insurgent and detained another as a result of this operation.
Today’s raid in Kunduz takes place just one week after special operations forces killed Makhdum Nusrat, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan’s top leader in Afghanistan. Nusrat was killed in a raid in Faryab province.
For more information on the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan’s operations in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and its links to al Qaeda, see LWJ report, IMU cleric urges Pakistanis to continue sheltering jihadis in Waziristan.
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2 Comments
The veracity of ISAF claims are becoming increasingly doubtful. Sure they get guys during ops in the Northeast, however, ISAF often vastly exaggerates their value and pecking order – a result of weak information and unreliable sources. We haven’t seen a decent “IED Mechanic” in Kunduz for some time, which is substantiated by the low volume of attacks up there lately. Since the beginning of 2012, out of the seven (7) significant IED Attacks recorded, up there only two were fatal. In comparison to the IMU IED mechanics in Loya Paktya, that’s nothing. To say that they have their sights on the “top IMU IED Mechanic” in the northeast doesn’t really mean much.
Keep up the good blogging…
Bot,
I disagree with you a little on this one, for this reason: ISAF didn’t say that he was linked to IEDs only. There have been some pretty good suicide attacks in the north that killed senior Afghan officials. My guess is this IMU guy was involved in the Xmas day assassination of the Afghan MP in Takhar, and perhaps today’s suicide boomer in Faryab.