New U.S. Afghan Push

The American military said Saturday it is stepping up its efforts to find Osama bin Laden and destroy his al Qaeda and Taliban supporters, with a sweep across troubled southern and eastern Afghanistan involving thousands of troops.
The military insisted their net will eventually close on the al Qaeda leader, who is believed to be hiding out in the mountainous border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

A spokesman said the new operation will also open the way for reconstruction in impoverished provinces along the Pakistani border - a reward the military hopes will encourage villagers to provide information about bin Laden's location.

"It's certainly about more than one person," Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty said. "We do have confidence, though, and the leaders of al Qaeda and the leader of the Taliban need to be brought to justice - and they will be."

Afghan officials hailed the new drive and said their forces were fully involved.

"They are trying to eliminate the enemies of Afghanistan and the enemies of the world," said Hilalludin Hilal, the deputy interior minister in Kabul.

American commanders have vowed to crush militants and snare bin Laden as well as Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar this year, with a combination of military might and desperately needed aid.

But they face enemies - estimated at less than 1,000 active fighters by a top U.S. general this week - who present no easy target, moving in small groups and preying on civilians, including aid workers and minor government officials as well as military targets.

Hilferty said the new operation, beginning Sunday, would continue tactics already employed by the 13,500 U.S.-led troops tracking militants more than two years after the fall of the Taliban.

That includes border patrols, house-by-house searches and surprise checkpoints and air assaults.

"We believe this will help bring the heads of the terrorist organizations to justice, by continuing placing pressure on them," Hilferty said.

Troops carried out an air-assault in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, but Hilferty would not give details, saying soldiers were still on the ground Saturday.

He declined to say how many troops would be directly involved in the new operation, but said they would have air support "24 hours a day, circling overhead ready to assist."

An Afghan army commander in southern Kandahar province, Haji Granai, told The Associated Press that U.S. aircraft killed 12 suspected Taliban in a pickup truck there on Thursday.

Granai said the planes struck in Maruf district, some 160 miles east of Kandahar city, where suspected Taliban killed seven Afghan soldiers in a raid on a border post on March 3.

The U.S. military had no immediate comment.

The number of U.S. troops has risen by some 2,500 since late last year, an increase officials attributed to a new headquarters in Kabul and new security teams placed in provincial capitals.

The military has not denied reports that members of Task Force 121, a crack unit of special forces and CIA agents which helped corner Saddam Hussein, have arrived from Iraq to beef up the search for bin Laden.

Lt. Gen. David Barno, the top American commander in Afghanistan, has said his soldiers are engaged in a "hammer-and-anvil" strategy along with Pakistani forces on the other side of the border.

Some 70,000 Pakistani troops have moved into semiautonomous tribal regions to take away maneuvering room for al Qaeda and Taliban fugitives believed to have taken refuge there.

A Feb. 24 operation in Wana, the main town in Pakistan's South Waziristan region, netted 24 suspects, but none was believed to be an important al Qaeda operative.

On Saturday, tribal elders in South Waziristan gave a 24-hour deadline to a tribe accused of sheltering terrorists to hand over the fugitives or expect an armed force of 600 men to search the area.

A Pakistani military spokesman, Gen. Shaukat Sultan, would not comment on the new U.S. operation or say whether Pakistani troops were involved in fresh deployments on their side of the border.

The new U.S. offensive is also supposed to safeguard landmark Afghan elections slated for June, when U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai is expected to secure a new term.

More than 140 people have died in violence already this year, underlining security fears ahead of the vote.