Word: khost
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...Taliban claimed responsibility for a number of attacks, including one on March 19 in Khost, in eastern Afghanistan. There, shortly before midnight, a U.S. base came under mortar and automatic-weapons fire. The attackers had crept to within a few hundred feet of the U.S. camp and were using an old prison building as cover. After a 45-min. battle that saw AC-130 gunships in action against the Taliban, the Americans say, they found "more than 10" bodies around the building. The ex-Taliban in Peshawar, however, are not deterred. They say they will be back, that when...
...Bush Administration originally declared Operation Anaconda a victory after al-Qaeda and Taliban forces were battered in the fighting at Shah-i-Kot, near Khost. But the bad guys in Afghanistan keep slipping away. Senior officials in Washington concede that "at least" hundreds of the enemy have crossed into Pakistan, where diplomatic and strategic considerations keep them beyond the reach of U.S. forces. Among the fleeing al-Qaeda, say intelligence sources in Islamabad, may have been Osama bin Laden's second-in-command, the Egyptian doctor Ayman al-Zawahiri. He was reportedly sighted a month ago, near Anaconda's mountainous...
...terrorist traffic flows both ways. Two weeks ago, U.S. special forces manning checkpoints on the Khost-Gardez road stopped a truck loaded with arms heading into Afghanistan. A week ago, Pakistani soldiers arrested five African men, suspected al-Qaeda members, who were trying to sneak into Afghanistan wearing burkas. In Khost local people speak of "night letters"--reportedly printed in the Pakistani border town of Peshawar--found scattered around the streets with the following warning: "All our Muslim brothers, our enemy is here. Join us now, or you will share their fate...
...Afghanistan, meanwhile, a few are awaiting the second coming of the Taliban. Nial Ahmed sits in a field not far from the U.S. base in Khost. Bearded and wearing his turban battened down Arab-style, Ahmed, 30, proclaims his loyalty to the Taliban. "For now," he says, "we can do little because the pressure of the world is upon us." But, he adds with a glint of hope, "our leaders, our fighters, are safe in Pakistan." --With reporting by Massimo Calabresi and Mark Thompson/Washington, Syed Talat Hussain/Islamabad and Simon Robinson/Khost
...AFGHANISTAN War Focus Shifts to Pakistan Border A surprise attack on U.S. and Afghan troops near the eastern town of Khost - just after officials announced the successful end of a 17-day operation against al-Qaeda and Taliban forces - prompted a rethink of the U.S. military campaign. Although it was not clear who was responsible for the attack, which killed three Afghan soldiers and wounded one American, U.S. commander Frank Hagenbeck said al-Qaeda forces might have to be pursued across the Pakistan border. Britain agreed to supply up to 1,700 troops in addition to its peacekeeping force...