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U.S. Military Launches New Anti-Taliban Operation

Tuesday, April 8, 2003
(11:44 AM CT)
Reuters

About 11,500 U.S. and its coalition forces are based in various parts of Afghanistan to pursue remnants of the al Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden and the Taliban regime that gave it shelter.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Reuters
The U.S. military launched a new operation on Tuesday against suspected hideouts of Taliban militants in the southern province of Helmand, the region's intelligence chief said on Tuesday.

Dad Mohammad Khan told Reuters nearly two dozen helicopter gunships and about 70 military and non-military vehicles were involved in the operation which began after dawn in Sangin district, north of Lashkar Gah, provincial capital of Helmand.

Khan said U.S. forces launched the operation after receiving information that Mullah Dadullah, a top military leader of the ousted Taliban, was hiding in Sangin near where two U.S. military personnel were killed and two others wounded when the convoy they were traveling in was ambushed at the end of last month.

Khan said Dadullah was not in Sangin, but the brother of Mullah Akhtar Usmani, who served as a key Taliban commander in neighboring Kandahar province, was hiding in the rugged area.
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2003 © Reuters, Ltd

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