Posted on 03/21/2003 4:03:39 AM PST by Indy Pendance
B A G R A M, Afghanistan, March 20 — As the war began in Iraq, U.S. soldiers mounted one of the biggest searches in a year for Taliban and al Qaeda fugitives in Afghanistan.
The military said the timing was coincidental, adding that it was acting on new intelligence from radio intercepts. Anti-U.S. groups had threatened to intensify attacks on the multinational coalition in Afghanistan if war breaks out in Iraq.
Operation "Valiant Strike" began at 6 a.m. today (8:30 p.m. ET Wednesday) and involved nearly 1,000 U.S. troops and their Afghan allies. Backed by attack helicopters, they swept into southern Afghanistan, combing mountain terrain and valley villages.
Military spokesman Col. Roger King said the raids focused on areas east of Kandahar, the former spiritual headquarters of the Taliban, which is allied with al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden's terrorist network. He declined to say whether bin Laden was the target of the hunt.
Khalid Pashtun, a spokesman for the Kandahar provincial government, said the Taliban's supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar has tribal links in the area.
"Operations in Afghanistan are conducted completely independent of any operations in other sectors," King told reporters at Bagram Air Base. "We have done a series of major operations; this is one more in a continuing series."
Not Timed to Coincide With Iraq War
In Washington, officials dismissed suggestions the offensive, coming so soon after the start of the war in Iraq, was intended to show the war against Saddam Hussein was not taking away attention from the war on terror.
"It is a separate operation; it is not connected and would have been coincidence," said Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The military launched the operation after receiving "a mosaic of different intelligence inputs" of activity in the area, King said. Radio signals had been detected coming from areas above the villages, according to military officials in Washington.
Civil affairs specialists, who get to know and befriend local residents, also contributed information leading to the assault.
The operation was led by an 800-soldier battalion known as the "White Devils," part of the 82nd Airborne division, though additional ground support teams and special forces soldiers also were taking part, King and other Army officials said.
Master Sgt. Richard Breach said he had no details on whether the troops, including Special Forces and civil affairs teams, had come across any enemy fighters or made any arrests. There was also no word on casualties.
But Gul Mohammed, head of the district administration who accompanied some of the U.S. forces, told The Associated Press that the group he was with made no arrests after searching hundreds of homes.
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