Afghans Launch Security System; Raids Nab Suspects, Weapons

The entire National Security Coordination System is to be fully operational by the end of 2008, officials said. The system will improve coordination among Afghan military and law enforcement agencies and enhance regional stability.

The system will consist of a National Coordination Center, five Joint Regional Coordination Centers and 34 Joint Provincial Coordination Centers. The centers will provide Afghan army and police leaders with operational information they can use to better-allocate security forces.

Current and planned regional and provincial Afghan National Police headquarters are to provide the foundation for the new coordination centers, with representation from the Afghan army and police forces and the National Directorate of Security, officials said.

In other news, Afghan and coalition forces yesterday captured two terrorists during a raid on a compound near the village of Pelankhel, in the Khowst province, U.S. officials reported.

The compound was part of a local terror network and a refuge for al Qaeda-linked operatives, officials said. The operation led to the detention of two terrorists suspected of plotting improvised-explosive-device attacks.

Several women and children were present at the compound, but none were harmed in the raid. Weapons, night vision equipment, and various devices suitable for making IEDs were confiscated during a search of the compound.

Elsewhere, Afghan National Police found and confiscated 13 mortar rounds in a pile of grass in the Khost district of Khost province on Sept. 4. The officers transported the munitions to their headquarters.

Also, in a separate incident in Paktika province on Sept. 4, coalition troops discovered an unattended mortar round near a coalition base in the Bermel district. Coalition forces disarmed and destroyed the mortar round at the discovery site.

“Recovering and disposing of these weapons increases the safety and security of Afghans and reduces the danger in the area posed by criminals and extremists who might use those munitions indiscriminately to cause harm on the Afghan people, Afghan security forces or coalition forces,” U.S. Army Lt. Col. Paul Fitzpatrick, a Combined Joint Task Force 76 spokesman, said.

(Compiled from Combined Forces Command Afghanistan news releases.)