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US plans a fresh offensive against Taliban, al-Qaeda

The US Defense Department is planning a new offensive in the two-year-old Afghanistan campaign to try to stop remnants of the Taliban regime and the al-Qaeda terrorist network, US officials said.

The news comes as another attack on international peacekeepers in Kabul on Wednesday drew new attention to a worsening security situation in a country where American and other Western troops have been stationed since the fall of the Taliban's leadership in early 2002.

Insurgents' use of roadside explosives and car bombs in the recent wave of attacks in Afghanistan has led to new comparisons with the insurgency in Iraq.

Orders have been issued to prepare equipment and supplies, though the operation will not necessarily require additional troops in the region, where about 11,000 Americans are still deployed, a defense official said Wednesday on condition of anonymity. The upcoming operation has been dubbed the "spring offensive."

Another US defense official declined to discuss the possibility that troops would extend operations to the Pakistan side of the border, where al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and top lieutenants have long been said to be hiding, but he said that might have to be the next step.

He said Defense Department officials believe operations in Afghanistan are not having the effect they want on the terrorist network and they are determined to do more.

Officials already have said they hope to finally capture bin Laden this year.

One senior defense official said Pentagon leaders determined a couple of months ago that it is important to catch bin Laden, more for the symbolism than for his military value.
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