KANDAHAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan – Across the Combined Task Force Spartan area of operations, the Zharay and Maiwand districts of Kandahar province, Spartan soldiers discovered and destroyed five caches with the help of their Afghan security forces partners, Sept. 27.
No soldiers were injured while discovering and destroying the enemy cache sites.
Soldiers with CTF Spartan’s 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment discovered a weapons cache near Kandalay Village. The cache consisted of an AK-47 magazine, five pounds of homemade explosive material, two 82mm recoilless rifle rounds, and two improvised explosive devices still yet to be completed. Because the improvised explosive devices and one of the recoilless rifle rounds were stable, they were transported by explosive ordnance disposal personnel, under controlled circumstances, back to a nearby coalition forces’ base.
The other explosive devices were detonated at the site.
Additionally, 2-87 soldiers discovered a drug cache, which consisted of 500 pounds of hashish. Afghan army soldiers collected the drugs and took them back to Combat Outpost Senjaray to destroy them.
Soldiers with 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment discovered approximately 50 pounds of a homemade explosives cache drying on a tarp outside a nearby compound. Insurgents frequently use tarps as drying locations for fertilizer-based explosives and other homemade explosive material. Coalition forces’ aircraft on scene conducted five gun runs on the HME cache.
CTF Spartan soldiers with 4th Battalion, 25th Field Artillery Regiment, operating in western Zharay district, discovered a drug cache and HME, consisting of 90 pounds of poppy seeds and approximately 250 pounds of cannabis. Afghan soldiers partnered with the 4-25 soldiers, destroyed the contents of the cache.
Additionally, 4-25 soldiers discovered a weapons cache with images from an unmanned aerial system. The cache consisted of three tarps of HME, two bags of HME, two hand-held radios and three antennas, a Russian rifle bolt and two AK-47 machine guns with six loaded magazines.