Hundreds of Afghan troops were today rushed to the rugged eastern Arma mountains to reinforce the US-led assault on an al-Qaeda stronghold US officials said includes "high-value" targets.
The Afghan defence ministry yesterday asked 1,000 men to head to the frontline, in the interim government's first deployment to assist the coalition that ousted the extremist Taliban militia from power.
"We want them to lay down their arms if they are Afghans and to hand over their foreign fighters. If not, we'll crush them," said the defence ministry's official for Afghanistan's southern zone.
US warplanes pounded the extremists' hideout this morning, local soldiers said, as powerful winds swept sub-zero Celsius temperatures over the snowy mountains.
Military officials said the thick clouds could impede warplanes but that ground forces would be able to press on in the deadliest operation for US forces since the Afghan campaign was launched October 7th.
"We have hurt the enemy. We have disrupted their lines of control. We have clearly destroyed over half of their force and disrupted their lines of supply," said US Col Joe Smith, chief of staff for the coalition task force fighting the battle in eastern Paktia province.
"They can either give up or be destroyed," he told reporters at Bagram air base near the Afghan capital Kabul. Col Smith indicated some senior al-Qaeda leaders might be among those caught in the trap, saying intelligence reports have identified "high-value" targets in the area.
But he would not speculate on whether al-Qaeda leader bin Laden was among them. The Saudi-born militant and his al-Qaeda network are blamed for the September 11th suicide attacks in the US that killed some 3,000 people.
AFP