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U.S. Closes in on Taliban's Mountain Hideouts
Wednesday, March 6, 2002
By Lorna Martin
The Herald

Troops from Australia, Denmark, France, Germany, and Norway are also in action in the ground assault.

FIGHTING continued to rage in eastern Afghanistan yesterday, with US forces advancing under heavy fire towards Taliban and al Qaeda bunkers and cave hideouts among snow-covered mountains.

As American troops recovered from their heaviest day of losses in combat since the war began, they closed in on an icy mountain-top cave and bunker complex where hundreds of Taliban soldiers and their families are thought to be hiding.

Abdul Muteen, an Afghan commander, said US and Afghan forces had advanced to within 100yds of the enemy's stronghold around Shah-e-Kot, south of Gardez, the capital of the Paktia province.

Taliban troops put up fierce resistance, trying to hold US-led forces at bay with machine-guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

"There is fierce fighting. The Taliban and al Qaeda fighters have become very weak. They are running out of ammunition," said Mr Muteen.

The French daily Le Monde reported yesterday that the US had broken up a huge Israeli spy ring that may have trailed suspected al Qaeda members in the United States without informing federal authorities.
(More: The Herald (UK) News Source)
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