Taliban Facilitator Turned into Authorities by Competing Taliban Member

As reported by Combined Joint Forces in Afghanistan, an important individual view as being a valued target was captured in Bermel District of Paktika Province by Afghan National Security Forces recently. Paktika Province is one of 34 Provinces in Afghanistan and is located in the southeast area of the country. It is mainly made up of Sunni people and is remotely located. The area was slow to recover and rebuild due to the fact that it is so remote.

There was information given to the Afghan National Security Forces by a Taliban facilitator that was a competitor to the one that was being targeted. He contacted the Afghan forces to relay information about the individual's whereabouts in a compound within the Bermel District. Coalition forces were able to locate the building thought to hold the target who is believed to be a organizer of improvised explosive devices for Taliban operations. He is thought to organize the purchase, housing, and shipping of the weapons throughout the area to different Taliban networks and is also thought to gather information for those networks.

A storage of weapons was also found at the location. Included in the find were weapons, ammunition, and a large amount of improvised explosive device material.

The suspect was captured by Afghan National Security Forces and transferred to an area to be held for processing. He was eventually turned over to Afghan authorities for his suspected crimes. He will be questioned about his role in various actions. The military forces in the area think that the suspects capture will significantly disturb the transportation of improvised explosive device material in the area and give the region a small break in attacks from this type of weapon. They also feel that the capture will shrink the amount of information that flows to Taliban networks in the area, subsequently breaking up some of the networks operations in the Paktika Province region.

The Afghanistan Taliban fighters are turning on each other at an increasing rate due to the continued efforts of military forces to break up networks.