ISLAMABAD (REUTERS) — U.S. troops stationed at an airport in the eastern Afghan city of Khost came under rocket and light weapons fire early Monday, a Pakistan-based news agency reported.
The private Afghan Islamic Press, quoting unnamed sources, said U.S. forces returned fire and called for air strikes. There was no word on casualties.
The unidentified attackers were believed to have fled by the time U.S. planes bombed areas east of the airport from where the attack was suspected to have been launched, AIP said.
Khost is close to the Pakistan border and Paktia province, where a U.S.-led offensive is fighting remnants of the Taliban and al Qaeda networks of fugitive militant Osama bin Laden.
Earlier airstrike efforts
U.S. planes rained bombs on unexpectedly strong Taliban and al Qaeda resistance in eastern Afghanistan Sunday, but a new all-out ground assault was held back due to fierce opposition, Afghan fighters said.
The biggest U.S.-led ground offensive of the five-month Afghan war was repulsed Saturday, forcing government troops and U.S. advisers to withdraw close to the nearby town of Gardez, about 95 miles from Kabul and 20 miles from the fighting.
There are estimated to be about 60 U.S. advisers involved in the battle.
In Saturday’s high-altitude fighting in snow-covered mountains in Paktia province near the Pakistan border, one U.S. soldier and three Afghans died in attacks on al Qaeda-Taliban fighters in caves and bunkers built in the 1980s by mujahideen-fighting occupying forces from the former Soviet Union.
Afghan soldiers reported occasional skirmishes Sunday in which two more Afghans died.
However, they said for the moment the attack was being left to B-52s that rained down bombs — including two new “thermobaric” 2,000-pound bombs which create a blast that drives air out of caves, suffocating those inside.
“There is no ground fighting at the moment. We are waiting for an end to the U.S. bombing and to make sure they are crushed before we move in,” said commander Abdul Matin, who is in charge of 200 of the estimated 1,000 Afghan forces.
“It’s a fierce firefight,” Richard Shelby, a top Republican on the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee, told the ABC Sunday talk show “This Week.”
He said of the regrouped al Qaeda and Taliban troops, “There’s a good many there. They’re heavily armed. And they’re trying to disrupt everything we’re going to do. If we don’t go after them now and destroy them now, it will get worse.”
Afghan soldiers say they believe they are facing 3,000 to 5,000 diehard fighters while Pentagon officials estimate the numbers to be in the hundreds.
But there is agreement that there are many Arab and other foreign fighters in the force.
During the ground lull, more Afghan government forces arrived from surrounding provinces — some arriving on four U.S. military helicopter transports, Matin said.
The whereabouts of the war’s main targets, al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, remain a mystery; however, the governor of Paktia province told Reuters the leaders were not believed to be in the area of the offensive.
There was a public display of support for the Taliban, deposed in December in a U.S.-led campaign, in which pictures of bin Laden and slogans supporting Mullah Omar appeared in three southern towns overnight.
“American agents should wait for a while,” said one slogan written beside bin Laden’s picture in the local Pashto language, warning the pro-American forces about the future.
“Mullah Omar and Osama are the pride of all Muslims,” said another slogan on the posters.
In October, President Bush launched a campaign to destroy the al Qaeda in Afghanistan and punish their Taliban protectors in retaliation for Sept. 11 air attacks on America, blamed on bin Laden and his al Qaeda network.
Al Qaeda and Taliban forces were routed in December after sweeping victories by U.S.-backed Afghan forces. This year there have been few major clashes and little U.S. bombing until fighting erupted near Gardez Saturday.
Afghan soldiers said some of the U.S. advisers were forced to abandon two four-wheel drive vehicles Saturday and flee for their lives.
Afghan soldiers said the U.S. advisers were rescued from the mountain fighting at heights of at least 8,250 feet by U.S. helicopters that braved intense fire.
“Firefights have been intense at times in heavy combat actions. The exact size of the enemy forces occupying a series of cave complexes is not known,” said the U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla., which is in charge of the Afghan war.
“The weather has been cold and terrain is snow-covered and mountainous, ranging from 2,500 meters high at the valley floors to 3,500 meters at the mountain peaks,” a statement said.
Afghan soldiers said for weeks the Taliban, who had family members with them, went to local markets and bought up to 1,000 sacks of food supplies a week, indicating the size of the contingent.
