A senior U.S. military official said Wednesday that coalition forces were forced to postpone plans for a major assault against Al Qaeda remnants along the border with Pakistan.
“The target that was expected did not materialize,” the official said. “There were some indications that something was going to happen, but it just didn’t.”
He would not elaborate on what American intelligence was expecting, saying only that “perhaps it could be that there was to be a meeting in Khost, but no one showed up.”
For days last week, Pentagon officials were predicting that a major U.S.-led operation would take place in southeast Afghanistan. Extra troops, including 1,000 British Marines, were flown into the region.
The U.S. Special Forces in the provincial capital of Khost asked its trained Afghan fighters to recruit 300 to 400 more men.
But then, although British and Canadian forces carried out reconnaissance missions, nothing much happened.
The senior military official based in Afghanistan said coalition troops will wait until circumstances are right.
Among other things, military intelligence will need to determine where Al Qaeda pockets are, their strength and whether they will still be there in days to come, he said.
One of the difficulties is that Al Qaeda fighters are no longer gathering in large groups. Many also have slipped into Pakistan’s tribal regions, at times re-entering Afghanistan for short periods. So American officials may plan an attack, but the Al Qaeda stragglers disperse by the time troops arrive.
The smaller scope of allied activity reflects a scaling down of offensive operations, the top British commander in the region said Wednesday, adding that the war in Afghanistan is essentially over.
“We believe we’re on the right way, that the fight against [Al Qaeda and the Taliban] in Afghanistan is all but won,” Brig. Roger Lane said, according to a pool report. “They’re not showing a predisposition to reorganize and regroup to mount offensive operations against us.”
When asked about Lane’s comments, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in Washington that coalition forces had several jobs to complete in Afghanistan, including helping to strengthen the government of Interim Prime Minister Hamid Karzai and tighten the country’s borders.
