Afghan push targets Al Qaeda fighters

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN —  Hundreds of U.S.-led troops have begun a major offensive against suspected Al Qaeda fighters hiding in the mountains of the Tora Bora region near the Pakistan border, U.S. military officials said Wednesday.

The rugged area in eastern Nangarhar province was the scene of a prolonged assault in late 2001 by U.S.-led forces unsuccessfully targeting Osama bin Laden after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Coalition spokeswoman Army Capt. Vanessa R. Bowman said hundreds of foreign fighters were believed to have fortified positions in caves and other locations.

“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,” she said.

The U.S. and Afghan ground troops were backed by airstrikes. No casualties were immediately reported.

Bowman refused to say whether the U.S.-led troops were acting on specific intelligence pointing to the possible presence of any senior Al Qaeda figures.

A U.S. official in Washington with knowledge of the operation said it had been “piggy-backed” on a previously planned action against extremists.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan, an explosion Wednesday near a German convoy southeast of Kabul, the capital, killed three German police officers and wounded a fourth. The officers were part of a security detail attached to the German Embassy. The country has about 3,200 troops in Afghanistan.

Baryali Parwani, chief of police of the Bagrami district, southeast of Kabul, said the diplomatic convoy was hit by a remote-controlled roadside bomb.

A four-wheel-drive vehicle was destroyed by the blast on a dirt track leading to a NATO and Afghan army training base. German and French troops cordoned off the area.

The British Embassy, meanwhile, said a Briton was shot and killed in Kabul. ArmorGroup, a private security firm, identified the slain man as one of its employees, Richard Adamson.

Zemari Bashary, an Interior Ministry spokesman, said police arrested two Afghan men suspected in the slaying. He said ArmorGroup protects a number of clients, including the British Embassy.

Elsewhere, Afghan police killed nine insurgents Tuesday in a gun battle in Logar province, south of Kabul, and one civilian was killed in an explosion in Paktika province, in the southeast, the Interior Ministry said Wednesday.