The Associated Press
Noor Ahmed (left), whose brother was killed in a rocket assault, displays rocket fragments with his nephew, Zabiullah, in Gardez, Afghanistan, on Sunday. At least 25 people were killed and 100 injured after fighting erupted among rival factions in eastern Afghanistan.

U.S. boosts forces on Pakistan border

PETER BAKER, THE WASHINGTON POST

Originally published Monday, April 29, 2002

GHULAM KHAN, Pakistan -- Helicopters swooping into the desolate mountains here have deposited hundreds of U.S. and British troops along the border in recent days as coalition forces target al-Qaida fugitives in Pakistan's unruly tribal areas, Afghan officials said.

After unconfirmed reports surfaced that Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenant have been spotted in the tribal areas, U.S. Special Forces troops and British Royal Marines shifted attention to Pakistan after weeks of chasing leads in eastern Afghanistan. The U.S.-led forces hope to disrupt attempts by al-Qaida to regroup in Pakistan and mount new attacks in Afghanistan.

"Right now, we have completed 95 percent of places the Americans should go in Afghanistan, and now they're starting the second phase in Pakistan," said Mohammed Yaqoob, Afghan commander of the last U.S.-controlled checkpoint in Afghanistan before the Ghulam Khan border crossing high in the mountains east of Khost. "In the past, we were concentrating on (al-Qaida) people going out, but now we're concentrating very much on people coming in."

The extent of the new deployment remained unclear. An Afghan official working closely with the U.S. military said 1,200 U.S. and British soldiers were flown to the top of the dry, craggy Gergerai mountains along the border four nights ago. Two other Afghan commanders said in separate interviews that they saw smaller landings over the last week, which could be part of a larger movement.

While U.S. officials declined to comment in detail, they've confirmed that four additional AH-64 Apache attack helicopters have been dispatched to Bagram air base north of Kabul for possible use in eastern Afghanistan. A joint U.S.-Pakistani raid of a one-time Taliban religious school in the tribal areas of western Pakistan on Friday also appeared to herald a broader operation.

"They're getting intelligence, they're working very hard, they're in a hurry," an Afghan official, who asked not to be named, said of the U.S. soldiers. "There are many, many signs that they're going to start the operation in 10 to 15 days."

The expansion of the war into Pakistan opens a politically sensitive stage in the battle on the eve of a referendum on whether to give Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who seized power in a coup in 1999, a five-year term as president. Although Musharraf has cooperated extensively in providing intelligence and air bases, his government has played down direct U.S. military action in Pakistan in advance of Tuesday's vote.

"There are some (U.S.) officials inside Pakistan for communication purposes, but they are not fighting," Musharraf told reporters. "Americans not even in double figures are with us. They are communication experts."

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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