An Afghan and coalition security force conducted an operation, in Watahpur district, Kunar province,... which is right down the road from Chitral. Kunar is Haqqani country.....
yesterday. The target of the operation was Khatab Shafiq, a Lashkar-e-Taiba leader. Khatab Shafiq was the LeT's senior leader in Kunar province. He was responsible for several attacks against Afghan and coalition forces, and provided money, weapons and training to insurgents in the region. Khatab Shafiq also established multiple insurgent training camps in eastern Afghanistan, where insurgents learned how to use mortars, rockets and machine guns. Most recently, he was involved with teaching insurgents how to build and emplace improvised explosive devices. During the operation, the security force positively identified Khatab Shafiq among an armed group of insurgents. After determining there were no civilians in the area, the security force engaged the insurgents with a precision airstrike away from all civilian structures. After the strike, the Afghan and coalition security force conducted a follow-on assessment and confirmed Khatab Shafiq, along with multiple other insurgents, had been killed. The assessment also confirmed the strike had not harmed any civilians or damaged any civilian property. Following the initial airstrike, the security force identified several more armed insurgents in the immediate area and engaged them with a second precision airstrike. A follow-on assessment confirmed the second precision airstrike had killed several insurgents but had not harmed any civilians or damaged any civilian property.