To: Softechie who wrote (16441 ) 3/19/2003 11:52:23 PM From: J.T. Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 19219 This San Sucker is just getting started and may Melt-Up out of control. They are working hard for the daily double elimination: Sadaam and bin laden's @SS:U.S. troops raid Afghanistan for al-Qaeda BAGRAM, Afghanistan (AP) — About 1,000 U.S. troops launched a raid on villages in southeastern Afghanistan Wednesday night, hunting for members of the al-Qaeda terrorist network, military officials said. Helicopters ferried troops from the Army's 82nd Airborne Division to the remote, mountainous area as the hunt for Osama bin Laden and his terror network intensified. U.S. military officials in Afghanistan only confirmed the operation was underway. "I do not have anything to say about the Kandahar operation at this time," said Col. Roger King, U.S. army spokesman. The troops left from their base in Kandahar, the former Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan. Radio transmissions had been detected coming from caves above the villages, said military officials in Washington. It was the largest U.S. military operation in Afghanistan since Operation Anaconda just over a year ago. That eight-day battle involved hundreds of Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters against thousands of American and allied Afghan troops. There have been a series of raids on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in the weeks since authorities captured al-Qaeda's No. 3 figure, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, in Pakistan on March 1. Authorities have said Mohammed is giving information to U.S. interrogators and have said some of the subsequent arrests came as a result of Mohammed's capture. Mohammed, an alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, is being interrogated by American officials at an undisclosed location. The agents who captured him in a suburb of Islamabad found computers, mobile telephones, documents and other evidence that could help lead to other al-Qaeda members. There have been increased attacks on Afghan government posts in southern Afghanistan in recent weeks. The authorities have blamed remnants of Taliban, al-Qaeda and loyalists of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a renegade rebel commander labeled a terrorist by the United States. **********************