KABUL, Afghanistan, Feb. 16 (UPI) -- An Afghan contractor was killed by a roadside bomb that exploded as a joint U.S.-Afghan patrol passed beside it, officials said Monday.
After the explosion in the southern province of Uruzgan, officials said, insurgents attacked the patrol with small-arms fire and machine guns. Troops responded with small-arms and mortar fire and air support, killing several insurgents, military officials said.
In western Afghanistan, multinational coalition troops said they arrested a weapons facilitator during a raid in the Farah province near the Iran border, the Kuwaiti news agency KUNA reported.
"The suspect is believed to have been supplying insurgent forces with weapons, munitions and improvised explosive device-making material, and financing insurgent activities throughout western Afghanistan," the U.S. military said in a statement.
