Posted on 02/20/2004 1:35:24 AM PST by Cap Huff
PESHAWAR – As many as 18 people, including six Pakistanis, were arrested on the first day of the renewed operation against suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban men in Khost area of Afghanistan on Thursday.
The joint operation was launched by the US and Afghan forces in Bangi Daar and Gurbaz areas of Khost to capture the suspected elements.
The reports from Waziristan and Kurram agencies reveal that the operation started in early hours of Thursday focused at Bangi Daar and Gurbaz areas.
During the operation, the joint forces are going for identity search of the people with a view to arrest the suspected people and foreigners.
A new check post has also been established in Afghanistan area, around 15 kilometers away from Kurram Agency. The US and Afghan officers are supervising and monitoring the operation from this check post.
Commander Ghaffar of the Afghan army also confirmed the launching of the operation but he was unable to provide details regarding its outcome.
According to independent tribal sources, around 18 people have been arrested on the first day of the operation. Amongst them six are Pakistanis who were arrested on the charges of staying illegally in Afghanistan. The arrested Pakistanis are traders and they were present in the area for business purposes, sources added.
The other 12 arrested people are stated to be the Afghan nationals and majority of them were arrested for possessing illegal arms. Some of them were also charged of defying the disarming process, launched in October last in all over Afghanistan. However, no active al-Qaeda man was arrested during the operation.
The reports from tribal areas reveal that the ground forces are also assisted by the US Apache helicopters in all over Khost and the border areas along Afghanistan. During this air operation, the US copters reportedly violated Pakistan’s air space in Sher Khel region.
Meanwhile, two US soldiers were reportedly killed in a bomb explosion in Khost on Thursday afternoon. The bomb explosion took place at around 1 pm. Further details in this respect are awaited.
General Myers Meanwhile, The United States is engaged in intense efforts to capture al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden who is believed to be still hiding in the border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan, the top US general said on Thursday.
‘It’s been intense,’ said General Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. ‘There have been operations that have gone on to work that problem. We’re organised to take advantage of the leads.’
Myers refused to discuss the search in any detail, but assured defence reporters here US intelligence agencies have spent ‘an enormous amount of time’ on the effort. ‘There are areas where we think it is most likely he is, and they remain the same. They haven’t changed in months,’ said Myers.
Asked whether the al-Qaeda leader was believed to be in Pakistan, he said, ‘Don’t know that. We think in that border region somewhere. We don’t know where it is precisely.’
Myers comments came just days after the top US commander in Afghanistan said the Pakistani military has begun to confront tribal leaders in the border areas, threatening them with home demolitions and other punishment if they harbour al-Qaeda fighters.
Lieutenant General David Barno, who recently boasted that Osama would be captured this year, said on Tuesday that US and Pakistani military forces operating on opposite sides of the border have tightened coopeation and were moving toward ‘hammer-and-anvil’ operations against al-Qaeda.
Myers said an increase in violence was anticipated as the weather improves and people are able to move around more in the country’s rough terrain.
‘We’ve been preparing for that and have been somewhat successful, and we’re getting good help from Pakistan on this issue as well,’ he said.
Myers said the Taliban forces were bent on disrupting elections this summer, but he did not think that security would be a major problem outside of hostile pockets in southern and southeastern regions of the country.
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