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Brits, Yanks visit al-Qaeda, but nobody's home...
U.S. troops swept onto a mountain ridge near the Pakistani border, ready to face perhaps dozens of al-Qaida or Taliban fighters. But they found only caves and buildings that had not been lived in for weeks. The search left soldiers who returned Monday to Bagram air base wondering if there is anyone left to fight in the field in eastern Afghanistan. "We were at least hoping to find, if not people there, at least information about people or some of their equipment," Cpl. Sam Watkins said. "Something to show that we did something." Some 170 soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division searched about nine caves Sunday on a ridge three miles from the border, outside the eastern city of Jalalabad. All they found were some documents, whose intelligence value was being evaluated, and a small pile of ammunition, but no signs that anyone was there recently. They blew up the entrances of four caves to seal them off. Farther south along the Pakistan border, hundreds of British marines have searched the plains around the town of Khost for the past week. They patrol roads to stop any fighters slipping in from Afghanistan and, in a more complicated task, try to locate any Taliban among the area's villagers. So far, they have found nothing, though they say they have succeeded in another key part of their mission: building bridges with residents. "We're here to conduct war fighting and kill al-Qaida. That is fantastic if only any would come out," said British Maj. Rich Stephens, who is commanding one of the companies deployed around Khost. "They're all away in Pakistan, it would appear to me." Doesn't that come as a surprise? Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2002-06-04 |
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