BAGRAM AIR BASE, May 22: US warplanes bombed suspected Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters who were seen setting up a mortar position overlooking a coalition base in southeastern Afghanistan, a spokesman said on Wednesday.

The A-10 fighter planes “neutralized” the position but it was not known if any opposition fighters were killed in the attack some two kilometres from the Pakistan border, Major Bryan Hilferty said while talking to reporters here.

“Yesterday afternoon in southeastern Afghanistan coalition and Afghan military forces observed more than 10 enemy personnel digging a mortar position overlooking one of our temporary bases.

“Our forces requested close air support, A-10 Warthogs came in and neutralized the area.”

The spokesman said the coalition forces had later inspected the area but found no bodies of opposition fighters.

“Either they had not killed them at all or we had killed somebody or wounded somebody and they had dragged them off. It was a successful mission because the people are not there lobbing mortars at us.”

Hilferty insisted that the base was being set up by Al Qaeda or Taliban forces.

“We can just look at some of the indicators: there were people on top of the hill digging ... all having weapons, very close to the Pakistan border ... it appears that they were going to dig in their mortars and aim them at our position there.”

Hilferty said the attack had taken place south of Khost city, where US troops have set up camp on the local airfield, but denied that the enemy forces had targeted the base, which has come under rocket attack on at least five occasions in the last few weeks.

The spokesman said that although Al Qaeda forces had suffered heavy losses in the massive Operation Anaconda which ended in March, the network still retained a leadership structure in Afghanistan.

“Obviously they are operating in much smaller groups than they were before Anaconda. We believe there are still Taliban and Al Qaeda elements in the country, probably focused in the mountainous area.

“The difficult terrain is where they would like to go. They are operating in smaller groups with some command and control but obviously not like it was before Anaconda or before October (when the US-led coalition began their campaign).’’

Hilferty said that to date no enemy fighters had been pursued while crossing from Afghanistan into Pakistan.

“As far as I know we have not pursued anyone who has gone across the border so we have had to stop,” he said.

British spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Curry said coalition forces had recovered an arms cache as Operation Condor moved into its seventh day.—AFP