14 March 2004	Sunday	22 Muharram 1425

KABUL, March 13: US-led forces have launched a sweeping new offensive in Afghanistan's remote southeastern mountains aimed at crushing the Taliban and Al Qaeda and trapping militant leaders including Osama bin Laden.

The operation, codenamed "Mountain Storm", began on March 7 and involves troops from the 13,500-strong US-led force backed by air support, US military spokesman Lt-Col Bryan Hilferty told a news briefing on Saturday.

Asked whether the operation could lead to the arrest of Al Qaeda leader Osama, Hilferty replied: "This operation is aimed like the rest at rebuilding and reconstructing and providing enduring security in Afghanistan, so it's certainly about more than one person.

"We do have confidence though, and the leaders of Al Qaeda and the leaders of the Taliban need to be brought to justice and they will be."

Hilferty said "Mountain Storm" was a continuation of previous operations and was intended to "destroy terrorist organisations and their infrastructure".

"We have air support, close-fire support from the air 24-hours a day, circling overhead ready to assist coalition forces. It is a continuing effort to keep pressure on the terrorist organizations and their infrastructure."

The fresh campaign comes after a surge in militant attacks on aid workers and foreigners, as well as against Afghan and US-led forces.

The officials in Washington told Reuters it was timed to exploit improving weather in the region between Afghanistan and Pakistan, where Osama is believed to be.

A Taliban spokesman said US forces had launched offensive action from the Waza Khuwa region of Paktika province to the Yakubi region of neighbouring Khost province. But he said the Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, who headed its government that harboured the Al Qaeda network, was safe.

"Mullah Omar is in a very safe place. But we don't know about Osama bin Laden," Taliban official Abdul Latif Hakimi told Reuters by telephone.

SECRET FORCE: US officials said the secretive Task Force 121, a covert commando team of Special Operations troops and CIA personnel involved in the capture of Saddam Hussein in Iraq in December, has relocated people and equipment to the border region to search for Osama and other Al Qaeda and Taliban guerillas.

Pakistan has in recent weeks moved forces into tribal lands on its side of the Afghan border in the search for militants. Hilferty said the Pakistanis had done "a great job".

Lt-Gen David Barno, the top US general in Afghanistan, said last month the United States and Pakistan were moving toward coordinated operations along the border - "a hammer and anvil approach" - to prevent fleeing guerillas from escaping by crossing from one country to the other.-Reuters