KABUL, Aug 15: Hundreds of US and Afghan soldiers attacked Al Qaeda positions in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday as a bomb blast claimed by the Taliban killed three German nationals in the capital, officials said.

The air and ground assault in the mountainous Tora Bora region, near the border with Pakistan, was launched about a day ago against carefully targeted positions, US military spokeswoman Captain Vanessa Bowman told AFP.

Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was last spotted in the Tora Bora mountains in 2001.

“US and Afghan forces engaged Al Qaeda and other violent extremist fighters in eastern Afghanistan during a combined arms assault using precision munitions,” Bowman added in a statement.

She said the mountainous and remote region was an ideal environment to conceal militant support bases and training sites, as well as plan attacks.—AFP