How that’s “unclenched fist” working out for you, Obama?…
(LWJ)– Coalition and Afghan special operations teams have captured a Taliban commander who doubles as an Iranian Qods Force operative and helped ship weapons from Iran into Afghanistan.
The Taliban/Qods Force operative, who was not named, was detained during a Dec. 18 raid in the Zhari district in Kandahar province, the International Security Assistance Force reported in a press release. ISAF and Afghan forces are currently working to secure Zhari and the neighboring districts of Panjwai and Arghandab from the Taliban.
“The joint security team specifically targeted the individual for facilitating the movement of weapons between Iran and Kandahar through Nimroz province,” ISAF stated. “The now-detained man was considered a Kandahar-based weapons facilitator with direct ties to other Taliban leaders in the province.”
In the initial press release, ISAF did not identify the Taliban commander as a Qods Force operative. But, in response to an inquiry by The Long War Journal, ISAF confirmed that the target of the raid was indeed a member of the Qods Force, the special operations branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
“According to intelligence reports, the targeted insurgent is a member of the Qods Force,” a public affairs official at the ISAF Joint Command press desk told The Long War Journal.
This is the first reported instance of the capture of a Qods Force operative in Afghanistan. US forces in Iraq captured several senior Qods Force commanders and operatives during operations in that country from 2006 to 2008.