KABUL, Jan 8: The United States is still in the dark over the inner workings of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network, US presidential envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad admitted on Tuesday.

“There is a lot we still do not know about the al-Qaeda network... their plans, perhaps secret cells, their relationship with other organisations and access to information, people facilities, and documents,” ,” Khalilzad told a media conference here.

The envoy warned that if “the remnants of the al-Qaeda and Taliban leadership remain, they are likely to regroup and challenge this new order that is being established (in Afghanistan)”.

“It is very important that the war against al-Qaeda and the Taliban continue until we succeed,” said Khalilzad, an Afghan-American appointed late last year as new presidential envoy to the land of his birth.

He said the US bombing campaign was now directed at the last pockets of al-Qaeda and Taliban resistance in Afghanistan.

“This is important ... for us and the international community because of the threat al-Qaeda has posed and continues to pose for the stability and consolidation of the new order in Afghanistan,” he said.

The US wanted the bombing campaign ended “as quickly and as rapidly as possible”, he said

“The United States was directly attacked by al-Qaeda (which was) sponsored by the Taliban,” Khalilzad said.

Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, he said, have a relationship of “mutual sponsorship”.

“It is very important that this mission succeeds and is completed in its entirety.”

The United States, he added, was committed to the consolidation of the new order in Afghanistan and helping in its reconstruction “so that we can preclude a return to chaos and a bin Laden junior down the road”.

Asked about the ongoing civilian deaths in the bombing campaign, he said al-Qaeda and the Taliban should be held responsible.

“The responsibility for civilian deaths lies with those who started the conflict — al-Qaeda and their sponsors, the Taliban,” Khalilzad told reporters.

“War is a very imperfect business and one goes into it extremely reluctantly,” he said. “Mistakes are made.”

“We do not target civilians but unfortunately civilians do get affected, sometimes even killed, in conflict.”

Khalilzad said the interim administration led by Hamid Karzai was fully behind the continuation of the US bombing campaign “until we have suceeded in the our objective of rooting out al-Qaeda and the Taliban.”

“We try to be extremely careful and discriminating in any sort of attack that takes place. It is not with pleasure and enthusiasm that we do this bombing,” Khalilzad said.—AFP