U.S. Offensive Targets Taliban and Al Qaeda

U.S.-led forces have launched a sweeping offensive in Afghanistan’s remote southern and eastern mountains aimed at crushing Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters, a U.S. military spokesman said Saturday.

Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty said at a Kabul news briefing that the offensive had begun March 7 and involved troops from the 13,500-strong U.S.-led force with air support.

Asked whether it could lead to the capture of Osama bin Laden, Hilferty said: “This operation is aimed like the rest at rebuilding and reconstructing and providing enduring security in Afghanistan, so it’s certainly about more than one person. The leaders of Al Qaeda and ... the Taliban need to be brought to justice and will be.”

The campaign comes after a surge in militant attacks on aid workers and Afghan government and U.S.-led forces and ahead of presidential elections scheduled for June.

Hours after the operation was announced, Taliban fighters attacked a government office near the Afghan-Pakistan border Saturday night, sparking a firefight that killed one Afghan soldier and three Taliban, police said today. The attack occurred in Kandahar province.

U.S. officials said in Washington that Operation Mountain Storm was timed to take advantage of improving weather along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, where Bin Laden is believed to be hiding.

Officials had said in January that troops were mustering for a spring offensive in the area aimed at capturing or killing Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters as they left winter bivouacs. Hilferty did not describe Mountain Storm as the beginning of that offensive.