Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Boston Globe
August 16, 2007 Al Qaeda figures possibly in area
By Rahim Faiez, Associated Press
BAGRAMI, Afghanistan -- Hundreds of US-led troops have launched an offensive against Al Qaeda and Taliban militants in an area of eastern Afghanistan where Osama bin Laden once hid, officials said yesterday.
A bomb attack near the capital, meanwhile, killed three German police officers assigned to protect their country's embassy, and a British national was shot and killed in Kabul.
The offensive involving ground troops and airstrikes in the Tora Bora region of eastern Nangarhar province is targeting "hundreds of foreign fighters" who are using dug-in fighting positions, said coalition spokeswoman Captain Vanessa Bowman.
US soldiers bombarded the remote, mountainous area in late 2001 during the hunt for bin Laden and his associates following the Sept. 11 attacks.
"This region has provided an ideal environment to conceal enemy support bases and training sites, as well as plan and launch attacks aimed at terrorizing innocent civilians, both inside and outside the region," Bowman said in a statement the Pentagon released later yesterday.
A US official in Washington with knowledge of the operation said it had been "piggy-backed" on top of a previously planned action against extremists.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, said those believed to be in the area included Taliban officials who could be accompanied by some mid-level members of Al Qaeda's leadership, but not the top echelon.
There were no immediate reports of casualties among militants or US and Afghan troops.
The bomb attack that killed the three Germans wounded a fourth, officials said.
The explosion near the two-vehicle convoy, which was traveling about 6 miles southeast of Kabul, turned one of the vehicles onto its side and left it badly damaged.
Also Wednesday, attackers in Kabul shot and killed a British man employed by a private security firm, according to the British Embassy and the firm.
Two afghan suspects were arrested, police said.
August 16, 2007 Al Qaeda figures possibly in area
By Rahim Faiez, Associated Press
BAGRAMI, Afghanistan -- Hundreds of US-led troops have launched an offensive against Al Qaeda and Taliban militants in an area of eastern Afghanistan where Osama bin Laden once hid, officials said yesterday.
A bomb attack near the capital, meanwhile, killed three German police officers assigned to protect their country's embassy, and a British national was shot and killed in Kabul.
The offensive involving ground troops and airstrikes in the Tora Bora region of eastern Nangarhar province is targeting "hundreds of foreign fighters" who are using dug-in fighting positions, said coalition spokeswoman Captain Vanessa Bowman.
US soldiers bombarded the remote, mountainous area in late 2001 during the hunt for bin Laden and his associates following the Sept. 11 attacks.
"This region has provided an ideal environment to conceal enemy support bases and training sites, as well as plan and launch attacks aimed at terrorizing innocent civilians, both inside and outside the region," Bowman said in a statement the Pentagon released later yesterday.
A US official in Washington with knowledge of the operation said it had been "piggy-backed" on top of a previously planned action against extremists.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, said those believed to be in the area included Taliban officials who could be accompanied by some mid-level members of Al Qaeda's leadership, but not the top echelon.
There were no immediate reports of casualties among militants or US and Afghan troops.
The bomb attack that killed the three Germans wounded a fourth, officials said.
The explosion near the two-vehicle convoy, which was traveling about 6 miles southeast of Kabul, turned one of the vehicles onto its side and left it badly damaged.
Also Wednesday, attackers in Kabul shot and killed a British man employed by a private security firm, according to the British Embassy and the firm.
Two afghan suspects were arrested, police said.