The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard Myers, says special United States forces are refitting and repositioning for a second ground strike against Taleban targets in areas of Afghanistan known to harbour terrorists.
With the ground phase of US-led raids now well underway, the battle for the north-western Afghanistan city of Mazar i sharif has taken on a new significance
The Taleban and the Opposition Northern Alliance are struggling for control of Mazar i sharif with both sides claiming supremacy in the ongoing battle for the city.
With US advisers now working alongside the western Northern Alliance warlord, General Rashid Dostum, it seems increasingly likely that any significant US ground troop incursion into Afghanistan will move over the Uzbekistan border.
Mazar i sharif is the key city in the region and is currently held by the Taleban.
The Northern Alliance recently claimed to have the Taleban on the run in Mazar i sharif but now a spokesman based in Uzbekistan has conceded that the Northern Alliance has suffered a setback with the front line being pushed back by two kilometres.
The Pentagon has provided further details of the activities of US special operations forces in their first action on the ground in Afghanistan yesterday.
General Myers said the US ground raid targeted a compound used by Mullah Mohammad Omar, hinting that the Taleban supremo was not at that residence when the troops struck.
"I'll characterise one of the targets as one of the locations where Omar lives and it's a fairly large complex, it's a command and control complex for the Taleban leadership," he said.
Asked if Mr Omar was in the complex at the time of the attacks, he said: "We had very low expectations that any of the senior Taleban or al Qaeda leadership would be involved in these particular targets".
He said the installation targeted was not the same as other centres bombed earlier.
The Pentagon has released video clips of special operations forces skydiving into an airfield near Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, including night vision footage of troops moving through buildings at the airfield.
General Myers says the forces met only light resistance in attacking and destroying terrorist and Taleban targets.
"Special operations forces include US Army Rangers deployed to Afghanistan. They attacked and destroyed targets associated with terrorist activities and Taleban command and control," General Myers said.
"US forces were able to deploy, manoeuvre and operate inside Afghanistan without significant interference from Taleban forces.
"They are now refitting and repositioning for potential future operations against terrorist targets in other areas known to harbour terrorists," he said.
General Myers says US special forces troops are now preparing for future ground operations in Afghanistan.
Earlier, US officials said more than 100 elite US special forces troops conducted a lightning raid into Afghanistan and were flown out of the country.
General Myers said two were injured in a parachute drop, and two personnel were killed and three injured in the crash of a support helicopter in Pakistan.
US President George W Bush paid tribute to the two dead, but insisted the war against the Taleban was making "great progress".
President Bush said the two soldiers "will not have died in vain".
"My heart goes out to the family and friends of those who lost their life," Mr Bush told a press conference at an Asia-Pacific leaders summit in Shanghai.
"It is hard to express my gratitude in proper words for people that are willing to sacrifice for freedom.
"We are dismantling the Taleban defences, Taleban military, we are destroying terrorist hideaways. We are slowly but surely encircling the terrorists so that we can bring them to justice," Mr Bush said.
US television stations reported that the troops were flown to Afghanistan on helicopter gunships from the USS Kitty Hawk in the Indian Ocean.
Yesterday's operation was the first ground combat operation inside Afghanistan since US and British planes started strikes against the Taleban and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network on October 7, in response to the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.
- REUTERS
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US prepares for second ground strike in Afghanistan
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