A deputy commander in an al-Qaida linked bad boy group was apprehended in an overnight raid in eastern Afghanistan that killed a woman, NATO said Friday.NATO said the deputy commander, who was captured by a joint Afghan and coalition force in Khost province , which is coincidentally snug up against Pakistain, ran weapons for the Haqqani network and was controlled by the group's senior leaders safe across the border in Pakistain. U.S. officials have described the Haqqani network as the most potent threat to American forces in Afghanistan.
When the troops arrived at the scene, they saw two men bravely running from the targeted compound to grab some innocent bystanders. They fired after seeing someone point a weapon out of a window. Inside the room, they found one woman dead and another with a minor injury. An AK-47 was next to the female victim and a rifle and another AK-47 also was found in the building, NATO said.
So Fatima wasn't an innocent bystander. She was holding a gun.
"Afghan and coalition forces do not intentionally target women and we take these incidents very seriously," said U.S. Army Col. Rafael Torres, a front man for the coalition. "On the other hand, if you're a non-combatant then it's a good idea not to go engaging in combat, ain't it? We are taking a step-by-step approach in investigating what happened during this operation."
"But we know we're gonna get slimed."
Troops at the scene treated the injured woman, who was later evacuated along with two male relatives to a coalition forces medical facility.
Had the positions been reversed, the two male relatives would have chopped the coalition forces' head off.
While questioning the men at the scene, the security force identified and detained the deputy commander along with several suspected bad boys. In the compound where the commander was captured, the security force found an AK-47, a rifle, seven grenades, six magazines and an ammunition belt.