- BAGRAM, Afghanistan (Reuters)
- U.S. troops launched an airborne assault in southeastern Afghanistan
Tuesday as part of what the U.S. military calls its biggest-ever operation
against the Taliban and their allies.
-
- The troops were flown in by helicopter Tuesday morning
to the mountains of Khost province close to the Pakistani border, after
intelligence reports militants were operating in the area. "It was
an air assault in which we came in with helicopters," Lt. Col. Bryan
Hilferty told reporters at the U.S. headquarters at Bagram. "This
is a simultaneous operation we are conducting throughout the whole of the
southern, southeastern and eastern parts of the country."
-
- The U.S. army says about 2,000 of the 11,500-strong
U.S.-led
force in Afghanistan are taking part in "Operation Avalanche"
and are backed by Afghan forces, in a bid to kill or capture militants
and make the area safe for aid and reconstruction work.
-
- The U.S. military said Operation Avalanche, which was
launched at the weekend, is its biggest ever ground operation against
Islamic
militants in Afghanistan
-
- "THEY HAVE TO REACT"
-
- "This one we have designed to simultaneously attack,
disrupt and deny sanctuary to the enemy throughout the entire southern
southeastern and eastern part of the country," Hilferty said.
-
- State-run Kabul Television said Monday that U.S.-led
and Afghan forces had wounded two militants and detained 15 in Sayed Karam
district of the southern province of Paktika and discovered caches of
artillery
and mortar ammunition.
-
- Overshadowing the offensive are the deaths of nine
children
killed in a U.S. air strike on the village of Petaw in the southern
province
of Ghazni Saturday.
-
- They are only the latest civilians killed accidentally
by U.S.-led forces pursuing remnants of the Taliban overthrown in late
2001 and members of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.
-
- Hilferty said Monday the military was concerned that
the bungled attack could alienate Afghans in the troubled south, where
Islamic militants are most active.
-
- He said soldiers from U.S. Provincial Reconstruction
Team in Gardez had visited Petaw Monday as a "gesture of
goodwill"
and distributed school supplies, clothing and medical items.
-
- The strike by A-10 "tankbuster" aircraft firing
30mm high-explosive and incendiary rounds had been meant to kill Mullah
Wazir, a militant the United States accuses of involvement in killing of
aid workers and workers on a key highway project.
-
- But Afghan officials say he was not at home at the
time.
-
- The United Nations said Sunday it was "profoundly
distressed" by news of the children's deaths and called for a swift
investigation and for its conclusions to be made public. Copyright ©
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