Cleaning these terrorists out of Afghanistan has been a tremendous achievement in the War, but many more battles still must be fought.

General Keane's got the right attitude.

Al-Qaeda trying to establish safe haven in Pak: US General
Patrick Quinn (AP)
Kandahar, May 25

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The Al-Qaeda network is trying to establish a safe haven in Pakistan, and Washington will deal with it when the time is right, the US Army's second-in-command said on Saturday. General John M Keane said the United States and its coalition allies have denied Osama bin laden and his Al-Qaeda network the use of Afghanistan as a base and removed the Taliban as the government supporting them. What few Al-Qaeda fighters remain, he said, have been reduced "to small groups hiding in the mountains."

"We have broken their will and they are trying to establish another safe haven now in Pakistan, and we will deal with that. When the time is right, we will deal with that one as well," Gen Keane said during an address to the 101st Airborne based at Kandahar airport.

"The only way we can protect the American people ... is to kill those who would kill them. There is no other way to do it."

US officials believe some Al-Qaeda and senior Taliban officials have fled across the porous border with Pakistan, where they are trying to reorganise. "There is no longer a safe haven for the Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. There is no longer a government that they can use to support them. There are no base camps left, there are no training camps left," Keane said during his one-day visit.

Keane told troops that their objective in Afghanistan was the complete eradication of Al-Qaeda, and lauded the 101st's participation in Operation Anaconda. "We got one thing here (and that) is to kill these" people, Keane said. "And that's what we are going to do, and we are going to keep doing, and keep doing, and keep doing it until we finish this thing on our terms. It's going to be tough, this is a tough environment and these guys are not going give up that easily. We have killed hundreds of them." Since the collapse of the Taliban in December, wewer than 100 bodies of Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters have been recovered. US officials say others have been incinerated by bombs, buried in collapsed caves or dragged away by their compatriots.

Gen Keane said US troops in Afghanistan have an unprecedented level of support at home, and described the campaign as the first fought by the Army for the American people. "All those other years, going all the way back to World War II, it's always been about somebody else's people; some other nation where some thug has imposed his will on them. This time it is all about the American people and they are here for us," he said.

The United States can't rely on security measures alone, he told cheering troops, but must bring the fight to the terrorists.

"We can't defend an open democratic society of 285 million people. The only way we can protect Americans is to kill those who would kill them. And that's what you are here for and we're doing that," Gen Keane said.