US forces in eastern Afghanistan captured a group of 14 al-Qaeda fighters and detained two of them for interrogation, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff said today
Laptop computers, cell phones, small arms and training manuals were found with the group, captured in Paktia province near the town of Gardez, General Richard Myers said.
The base where they were captured was filled with tanks and weapons and had been heavily bombed in recent days.
The two individuals held last night were transferred to a US camp near Kandahar, he said. The others, he indicated, had been handed over to local Afghan forces.
"The US team determined that two of these individuals met the criteria for detention and moved them to Kandahar," Gen Myers said.
He said US intelligence experts were examining the laptops, cell phones, manuals and other items found with the two al-Qaeda members.
"They become very interesting to us because they're a part of the worldwide network of terrorism that al-Qaeda supports," Gen Myers told a Pentagon press briefing.
"And so, we would hope to be gleaning, you know, information that might point to future operations, other operatives and so forth."
He said that US forces were now holding 364 al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects in Afghanistan and on a US ship off the Gulf of Oman, some of whom would be transferred "soon" to a US naval base at Guantanamo, Cuba.
AFP