In a reminder that the war in Afghanistan is far from over, unidentified gunmen attacked U.S. forces at an airfield outside the eastern town of Khost early Wednesday, injuring an American soldier.
Three U.S.-allied Afghans were reported killed in the ensuing firefight, which coincided with warnings that Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters are regrouping in the area to launch a new phase of guerrilla warfare against U.S. troops after their defeat in Shah-e-Kot.
The attack came less than 48 hours after Gen. Tommy Franks, the U.S. commander of the war in Afghanistan, proclaimed the successful conclusion of Operation Anaconda, the biggest U.S.-led offensive of the war so far, in which a combined force of U.S. and Afghan soldiers attacked Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters holed up in caves around the Shah-e-Kot Valley.
Khost, which lies 40 miles to the east of Shah-e-Kot, has long been a hotbed of sympathy for the Islamic militants and is regarded as one of the next likely flash points of confrontation in the war in Afghanistan.
At Bagram air base north of Kabul, Maj. Bryan Hilferty said he did not know whether the assailants included fighters who managed to escape the military dragnet at Shah-e-Kot. The Pentagon says up to 700 enemy fighters were killed in Operation Anaconda and disputes claims by Afghan officials and commanders that many of those surrounded in the operation fled in the direction of Khost and the Pakistan border beyond.
The attack nonetheless served as a reminder that the U.S. victory at Shah-e-Kot was incomplete, and that there are probably many militants still at large in the rugged mountains of eastern Afghanistan where sympathies for the ousted Taliban regime run high.
Hilferty said the attackers used machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars in the attack.
It was not the first attack on U.S. forces in the area, but coming so soon after the declared victory at Shah-e-Kot it underscored the continued risk to U.S. forces in Afghanistan from the remnants of the Al Qaeda and Taliban forces.
In a further indication that Al Qaeda may be using bases in Pakistan to supply and direct operations against U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Pakistani security officials said Wednesday that they arrested seven suspected Al Qaeda members as they tried to slip into Afghanistan not far from Khost.
The men came from Uganda, Sudan, Mauritania and Pakistan, and were found to be carrying three pistols and an undisclosed amount of cash. Four of the men were wearing burqas, the head to toe robes worn by Afghan women, authorities said.
Maj. Gen. Franklin Hagenbeck, commander of U.S. forces at Bagram, said Wednesday that they might cross the border into Pakistan to capture or kill Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters.
Hagenbeck, of the 10th Mountain Division, told The New York Times that chasing Al Qaida and Taliban fighters into Pakistan would be a “last resort” carried out with the approval of Pakistani leaders.
