New Offensive Vs. Afghan Fighters

U.S. and Afghan troops have launched a new anti-terror operation in eastern Afghanistan aimed at killing insurgents and disrupting their network, the U.S. military said Monday.

In another sign of the struggle to stabilize Afghanistan, government loyalists in the south appealed for help against the Taliban, two years after the militia's rulers were driven from power by a U.S.-led invasion.

Operation Mountain Resolve began Friday in Nuristan and Kunar provinces with an airdrop by the 10th Mountain Division, U.S. military spokesman Col. Rodney Davis said. The provinces are about 95 miles northeast of the capital, Kabul.

The operation by U.S. troops and Afghan militia is likely to target al Qaeda and Taliban members, as well as the Hizb-e-Islami, a group loyal to renegade warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. A former prime minister, Hekmatyar has issued calls for a jihad, or holy war, against foreign troops in Afghanistan, and so far has eluded U.S. efforts to arrest or kill him.

"The main objective is against terrorism. It is focused on destroying anti-coalition elements, disrupting their ability to operate in the eastern region of Afghanistan," Davis told reporters.

"We want the anti-coalition forces to understand that there is no sanctuary for them anywhere in Afghanistan," he said. He did not say how long the operation was expected to last.

Separately, Jawid Luddin, the spokesman for President Hamid Karzai, said all three groups are part of the "terror problem."

"They come in different manifestations, but they probably are part of the same network," he told reporters. Although Afghanistan's national army is not taking part in Operation Mountain Resolve, the U.S. military has coordinated it with the Kabul government, he said.

Karzai's central government, set up after the ouster of the Taliban, wields only limited influence outside Kabul. Luddin said the government remains deeply concerned over poor security.

Parts of the north are controlled by rival warlords who back the government only nominally. In the south, Taliban insurgents have stepped up attacks in recent months against coalition and government troops, and struck against Kabul loyalists.

On Monday, an official from Zabul province, about 60 miles from the former Taliban power base in Kandahar, urged the central government to do more to help its supporters in the face of mounting attacks.

"The Taliban are attacking, but nobody is paying any attention," said Zafar Khan, head of Zabul's Khak-e-Afghan district.

Speaking by satellite telephone, Khan told The Associated Press that loyalists want Karzai's government to send more troops to protect the remote mountainous region.

Authorities in Zabul have been hounded by the Taliban, facing a string of bomb blasts and direct attacks by militants in recent days. Khan said four of his relatives had been kidnapped by the Taliban.

The Taliban also have clashed with Afghan soldiers in the region.

Zabul neighbors Kandahar province and borders Pakistan, where many Taliban are believed to have fled after their ouster.

"Afghanistan has become another battleground. Afghans have been dying now for two decades and are fed up with this," Khan said.

Afghanistan has faced war almost constantly since 1979, when the Soviet Union invaded. The country descended into civil war after the Soviet army withdrew in 1989, and most regions have been the scene of fighting on and off since then.

In an attempt to undermine the Taliban, the government has tried to win over ordinary fighters with a limited amnesty, coinciding with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Officials in the central Uruzgan province said Monday that eight men — none of them high ranking — were freed last week.

Fighting has intensified in Afghanistan over the past several months between the coalition and remnants of the ousted Taliban movement or al Qaeda, although it has mostly focused on provinces bordering Pakistan.

Last month, three Americans were killed there.

A U.S. special forces soldier died from wounds he suffered during fighting in the southern Afghan province of Helmand.

Two CIA operatives were killed after being ambushed on the border near a base at Shkin, in Paktika province, 135 miles south of the capital. The ambush occurred in the same area and on the same day as fighting during which coalition and Afghan forces killed 18 attackers that the military said were members of al Qaeda.

The CIA operatives were contractors employed by the agency. Both men were veterans of military special forces.