News U.S. forces continue offensive against Taliban, al-Qaeda; laboratories searched

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U.S. forces in Afghanistan are searching more than 40 laboratories and other facilities suspected of conducting secret work on chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, U.S. officials said Nov. 27.

Meanwhile, U.S. warplanes bombed a compound southeast of Kandahar believed to contain senior al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said.

But a senior Taliban representative denied speculation Nov. 28 that the group's top leader Mullah Mohammed Omar had been injured or killed in the U.S. air strikes.

The U.S. also continues its hunt for top terror suspect Osama bin Laden. U.S. Army Gen. Tommy Franks said intelligence has focused the U.S. on two areas — one in the vicinity of Kandahar and the other in an area stretching from the capital Kabul east to the Khyber Pass on the Pakistan border, including Jalalabad and Tora Bora.

Tora Bora, an impenetrable mountain fortress, was built with U.S. aid for anti-Soviet rebels during the Soviet Union's 10-year occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s. It lies 56 km south of Jalalabad, atop a 3,900-meter mountain and is three hours by foot from the nearest road

The U.S. has already dispatched about 1,000 Marines to establish a makeshift base some 120 km southwest of Kandahar

米、地上部隊をアフガンに配置

米国はタリバンが最後の砦としているアフガニスタン南部のカンダハル周辺への爆撃を強化する一方、1,000人規模の地上部隊を投入し、ビンラディンやタリバン指導者らの捕獲に全力を挙げている。

Shukan ST: Dec. 7, 2001

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