KABUL, Afghanistan — American planes, aiding groundtroops, bombed positions Monday in southern Afghanistan as part ofan operation that has killed at least 15 suspected Talibanfighters, the U.S. military said.
There were no reported casualties among U.S. or Afghan troops inthe fighting that began a day earlier in Kandahar province and hasbeen dubbed Operation Mountain Viper, said a statement issued bythe military from its headquarters in Bagram.
Earlier, the military said guerrillas fired mortars and machinesguns at U.S. soldiers in eastern Afghanistan, an area that has seenrepeated clashes in recent months.
Soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division, based in Fort Drum,N.Y., came under attack Saturday as they patrolled near a U.S. basein Paktika province, a few miles from the border with Pakistan, theAmerican military said in a statement.
The guerillas, believed to be al-Qaida or remnants of theTaliban, traded fire with the U.S. troops for about an hour beforefleeing toward the Pakistan border. There were no reportedcasualties.
The battle was the latest in a series in the south and east ofthe country that suggests a growing boldness by Taliban and theiral-Qaida allies.
Suspected Taliban militants in the neighboring province ofPaktia have recently threatened to cut off the nose of anyone wholistens to music or men who shave their beards -- violations oftheir strict interpretation of Islam, said Provincial GovernorAsadaullah Wafa.
Mohammed Yar, a man who lives in the province, said about 200Taliban militants visited a local bazaar Saturday and issued asimilar warning, distributing leaflets threatening ''heavypunishment'' for anyone who cooperates with U.S. forces in therugged border region.
In another attack Saturday, two rockets landed near a U.S. basein neighboring Khost province, said a statement issued in Bagram,the headquarters for American forces in Afghanistan.
In Islamabad, Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khansaid ''the backbone of the terrorists has been broken,'' but asmall number of Taliban and al-Qaida have regrouped.
''We should arrest, neutralize all terrorism ... in thebordering area of Pakistan-Afghanistan,'' he said, calling forbetter cooperation among U.S., Afghan and Pakistani forces in thearea.
Officials have said they suspect militants have increased theiractivities to mark the second anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks,which prompted the U.S.-led operation that swept the Taliban frompower at the end of 2001.
In Belgium on Monday, NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson saidthe alliance is considering a U.S. and German request for the U.N.peacekeeping force in Afghanistan to spread outside the capital,Kabul.
NATO currently provides 5,500 troops in Kabul under a U.N.mandate to maintain order in the capital and support the Afghanauthorities. About 11,500 foreign troops are also in Afghanistan inthe U.S. force fighting the remnants of the Taliban andal-Qaida.
Widening the role of the U.N. force could ease pressure on U.S.forces stretched by operations in Afghanistan and the occupation ofIraq.
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