United States Military Assaults Afghanistan

As the hunt for Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar continued Tuesday, American defense officials confirmed that U.S. Marines were helping with "information gathering" at a former Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan. The Marines have been "actively doing a search . . . in the Helmand province west of Kandahar," while Special Forces have been working with anti-Taliban soldiers in the region, said Army Col. Rick Thomas at the U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla.

With intelligence reports zeroing in on Mullah Mohammed Omar's suspected location and suggesting that he may be negotiating a surrender, Pentagon officials warned Afghan allies Wednesday that they expect any deal to put the Taliban leader in U.S. hands. As a Pentagon official declared Osama bin Laden's trail cold in the snowcapped mountains of Tora Bora in eastern Afghanistan, U.S.

U.S. warplanes Thursday struck a military compound in eastern Afghanistan where members of Osama bin Laden's terrorist network were regrouping, the Pentagon said. The attack was the latest in a series of calibrated strikes designed to pound Taliban and Al Qaeda leaders so they cannot regain power. Thursday's strike was the third since Dec.

A U.S. Army Special Forces soldier was killed Friday in a firefight in eastern Afghanistan, becoming the first U.S. service member slain by enemy action in three months of warfare, Pentagon officials said. The Green Beret was identified as Sgt. 1st Class Nathan R. Chapman, 31, of San Antonio, Texas, the Pentagon said. He was ambushed while on a mission with allied Afghan fighters near Khowst, where Al Qaeda fighters have congregated, officials said.

It didn't matter what it was, his buddies said, Nate Chapman wanted to be there. Lending a hand. Doing the hard stuff. "There's a couple times where he'd be halfway dressed, running down the hallway, trying to catch up. You know, he never wanted to be left behind, he always wanted to be right there, willing to help and give a hand," Sgt. 1st Class William Pence said Saturday, fighting back tears as he recalled his Army comrade of 14 years, Sgt. 1st Class Nathan Ross Chapman, the first U.S.

The first of about 1,500 U.S. troops began heading for the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on Sunday to build and then protect a maximum-security prison for up to 2,000 Al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners from Afghanistan, the Pentagon said. An initial group of prisoners--fewer than 100--will be transported to the new prison within the next 10 days. The largest share of the U.S. troops will be military police from Ft. Hood, Texas, according to Lt. Col. Dan Stoneking, a Pentagon spokesman.

Surviving leaders of the Al Qaeda terrorist network are repeatedly trying to regroup at a warren of caves and bunkers in eastern Afghanistan, despite three attacks on the complex in four days by U.S. warplanes, senior Pentagon officials said Monday. The most recent strike on the Zhawar Kili al Badr training camp, late Sunday night, hit tanks and artillery, officials said.

No one can be found to tell this story firsthand. There is disagreement from those who live nearby about the details of the bombing. But what is clear is that where a small village once stood in the arid plains of east-central Afghanistan, there is little left but torn clothing, piles of brick, pieces of human flesh and hair, and a substantial stockpile of small-arms ammunition. The United States launched a fierce bomb attack on Qalaye Niazi before dawn Dec.

As the hunt for Al Qaeda leaders expands beyond Afghanistan, authorities confirmed Tuesday that they are pursuing one man as intensely as Osama bin Laden himself--an elusive Palestinian who they believe has been entrusted with keeping the terrorist organization's global network of cells alive and operational.

The cells are boxes of chain-link fence with concrete floors and thick-planked wood roofs. The beds are mats on the floor. The jailers are gun-toting infantrymen, military police with attack-trained German shepherds and artillerymen in Humvees. And the inmates are "the worst of the worst," said the prison's commander--the toughest of the Al Qaeda and Taliban members currently held by the U.S. military in Afghanistan.