Taliban And Al Qaeda

A roadside bomb killed two American soldiers and wounded three in southern Afghanistan's Oruzgan province, the U.S. military said in Kabul. The attack occurred northwest of a U.S. base in Deh Rawood. Another U.S. official said the casualties were from the Army's 25th Infantry Division. About 18,000 U.S. soldiers make up the vast majority of the coalition forces hunting Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters in southern and eastern Afghanistan.

Two U.S. Marines were killed and one was wounded in an attack in eastern Afghanistan, where troops are hunting Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters, the U.S. military said Friday. The deaths brought to at least 92 the number of American troops killed in or around Afghanistan since the start of the campaign that ousted the Taliban in late 2001, and they came as insurgents have intensified attacks ahead of national elections.

A Pakistani national pleaded guilty Thursday to being part of a conspiracy to buy U.S.-made Stinger missiles to be sold to the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Syed Mustajab Shah is the third person to plead guilty in the scheme, uncovered in 2002 by agents posing as arms dealers. Shah admitted that the three told the agents that they planned to pay for the missiles with profits from a hashish and heroin smuggling operation. Shah faces a possible life sentence. The others have not been sentenced.

The United Nations Security Council imposed sanctions against Osama bin Laden, his Al Qaeda terror network and remnants of the Taliban. The resolution, adopted unanimously, requires all countries to impose an arms embargo and a travel ban on individuals and groups associated with them, while freezing their financial assets. The United States strongly backed the resolution. A U.S. official said it will help accomplish the Bush administration's goal of going after the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

KABUL, Afghanistan - A militant group said its attack Thursday on a NATO convoy in the Afghan capital marked a stepped-up campaign against the foreign presence in Afghanistan, and promised more such assaults. The suicide bombing killed six Americans, including four civilian contractors, and at least nine Afghan civilians, including two children, according to local and coalition officials. "Our party will increase its attacks against foreign troops in Afghanistan in the future," said Zubair Sediqqi, a spokesman for Hezb-i-Islami, which claimed responsibility for the attack.

Thousands of white strips of paper lay scattered across the brown plains of Afghanistan's eastern Paktia province Sunday, messages and warnings from the U.S.-led military coalition: "Hand over Taliban and Al Qaeda or you will be destroyed. Come forward with information about Taliban and Al Qaeda." The pamphlets littered plains leading to mountains where U.S. jets are attacking Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters, pounding the cave complexes that honeycomb the snowy peaks. U.S.

U.S. and coalition forces were fighting a pitched battle against a group of about 80 rebels aligned with renegade leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar in the largest-scale fighting since Operation Anaconda nine months ago, the U.S. military said today. At least 18 rebel fighters were killed, and there were no coalition casualties, U.S. military spokesman Roger King said from Bagram air base. American war planes attacked enemy positions with B-1 bombers, F-16s and AC-130 gunships, King said.

CIA officer Helge Boes was killed and two others were injured when a grenade detonated prematurely during a training exercise in eastern Afghanistan, agency officials said. The injuries to the two officers were not believed to be life-threatening. Boes, 32, who lived in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, was an operations officer assigned to the CIA's Counterterrorism Center, the agency said.

Re "Remember Afghanistan?" editorial, Sept. 1: Washington's shortchanging in Afghanistan could be more catastrophic than the war in Iraq. The problem of getting more NATO and European support in the security and reconstruction depends on America's comprehensive, clear Afghanistan policy. The Taliban and other insurgents cross the border to find sanctuary and get training and supplies. Afghanistan's warlords find support from the outside. The outside bases must be eliminated to wipe out Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives.

A man blew himself up Sunday at the gate of an army base in Pakistan's northwest, killing at least 11 people, including four soldiers, officials said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. The suicide bomber struck at the gate of the Punjab Regimental Center in the city of Mardan, about 30 miles east of Peshawar. Most of the casualties were at a nearby market. Police Chief Akhtar Ali Shah said 22 people were wounded.