U.S. forces capture suspected al Qaeda financier

U.S. Special Forces troops patrol a road in southeastern Afghanistan on Tuesday.

BERMEL VALLEY, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A suspected al Qaeda financier was captured by American and allied soldiers in their latest push to disarm the Afghan countryside and detain terrorist and Taliban fugitives.

Journalists covering Operation Champion Strike, which ended Wednesday, were barred from reporting the name of the al Qaeda suspect, who was among nine people detained by the soldiers in two searches.

The troops also recovered 150 AK-47 rifles, 200 explosive booby traps, a mortar, cases of hand grenades, rocket launchers, rockets, heavy machine guns, military communications equipment and a poster of Osama bin Laden.

In the first search, a female U.S. soldier, Sgt. Nicola Hall, discovered an Afghan woman hiding weapons.

"She had a 30-round magazine cupped underneath her breast," Hall said. The woman also had an AK-47 assault rifle attached to her leg that was hidden by her burqa.

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The operation began in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, about 175 miles south of Kabul, and involved nearly 1,000 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division and the 1st Batallion of the 504th Regiment.

It was the largest operation in that area since Operation Mountain Lion two weeks ago.

Eight of the detainees were captured Saturday when troops from the 3rd Batallion of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment raided a suspected al Qaeda and Taliban recruitment center near Afghanistan's border with Pakistan.

Among the eight were two suspected al Qaeda members, including the financier, and one man identified by the soldiers as a "high-value target."

A U.S. soldier said he overheard one of the two men transmit a radio message before he was captured during which he said, "I'm surrounded by the Americans, I've got no way out."

The troops confiscated what one soldier described as a "bucketful of satellite phones, passports, a poster of Osama bin Laden, and Taliban and al Qaeda documents."

The troops also recovered the weapons cache during that raid.

In the second search, the 1st Batallion -- also known as the "Red Devils" -- went to the village of Sharip Khail, not far from the first targeted area.

There, members of the Afghan Militia Force were fired on by unidentified gunmen as they detained a man in a residential compound.

A U.S. Army sergeant told the village elder, "We are here to search your village ... we are not here to take your things ... you have 10 minutes to get all the men, women and children here, don't leave anyone behind."

After the village was emptied, the soldiers found AK-47 rounds in a mound of hay and, noticing a portion of newly mud-plastered wall, dug through to find 17 rockets and documents inside, including a postcard with Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar's name written on it and a document from the Pakistani Foreign Service.

They also found rosters of names, Korans, English learning manuals, hand grenades and an anti-tank mine.

"I think that we've got those who oppose peace on the run over here," said Lt. Col. David Gerard, the battalion commander for the Red Devils.

"We want to deny Afghanistan and other countries for that matter from providing sanctuary or a place to train. But the fact that they are on the move is preventing them from planning future attacks."

He added: "Our goal just isn't Osama bin Laden. Obviously capturing him would mean a lot to the American people. But we've been fighting terrorism for over 22 years and it didn't just start on September 11."