KABUL, March 31: The first batch of 2,000 US marines deployed to Afghanistan to intensify the hunt for Osama bin Laden and other Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders has begun arriving , US military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Bryan Hilferty said here on Wednesday.

Col Hilferty would not say how many marines had arrived, but when the group is fully deployed over the next few weeks, it will bring the number of US -led coalition soldiers in Afghanistan to its highest ever figure of 15,500.

Some 13,500 of these are from the United States, with Rumania contributing the largest non-American combat unit with some 400 troops. The newly-deployed troops from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit will be part of Operation Mountain Storm which aims to capture or kill Al Qaeda and Taliban militants, including Osama bin Laden and Taliban founder Mulla Mohammad Omar.

Operation Mountain Storm, which began on March 7, focuses on Afghanistan's porous border with Pakistan and complements Pakistani efforts to squeeze militants out of tribal frontier areas. -AFP