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US troops hunt Afghan rebels
Hundreds of US and coalition forces are scouring caves in southern Afghanistan for rebel survivors after fierce fighting on Tuesday. Up to 18 anti-government fighters were killed in what US military officials called the largest-scale fighting for nine months. American war planes were called in to bomb the mountainous region near the town of Spin Boldak, close to the Pakistan border. A US military spokesman said there had been no clashes since late on Tuesday. "At least 160 caves have been counted so far," Colonel Roger King told reporters. He said 200-400 US troops were involved in combing the cave complex, 100 kilometres (62 miles) east of the city of Kandahar, and that enemy casualties were still being assessed. A number of men have been detained and weapons destroyed. US and Afghan officials say they believe the fighters are aligned to the warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a former prime minister who has vowed to fight US forces on Afghan territory. Tuesday's fighting was centred on rocky, unpopulated terrain around the Adi Ghar mountain, near the border with Pakistan. The fighting was triggered by a small gun battle nearby between US Special Forces and armed attackers as the Americans and Afghan Government troops were working to clear a compound. Checking a village and took fire from the hills. The allied forces surrounded the group - which locals said had been threatening communities east of Spin Boldak - killing at least one man and wounding another. Zapped a shooter Apache helicopters sent to investigate came under fire, Real bad move prompting the deployment of American B-1 bombers, F-16s and AC-130 gunships. "Hey guys, we got targets! Come on down!" Colonel King said that intelligence suggested the rebel fighters were most closely aligned with faction leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. "The man who was detained talked about a link to Hezb-e-Islami, which is Hekmatyar's military group," he said. The US miltary also say they have reports that the warlord has been attempting to consolidate with remnants of al-Qaeda and Afghanistan's former Taleban rulers. Because he said so However, the BBC's Rahimullah Yusufzai, reporting across the border from Peshawar, says there is little evidence that Mr Hekmatyar has joined forces with the Taleban. BBC must have been napping Posted by: Steve 2003-01-29 |
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