Fighting erupts in Tora Bora between NATO, insurgent forces

KABUL, Afghanistan
— Fighting between NATO forces and insurgents has erupted in the Afghan
mountains of Tora Bora, best known as the rugged labyrinth where Osama bin Laden evaded U.S. capture nine years ago.

The Western military and Afghan officials said Wednesday that the district of Pachir Agam, in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Nangarhar near the Pakistan border, had become a staging ground for Taliban and other fighters preparing attacks on NATO and Afghan troops.

At least five Taliban fighters, including two men
identified as local commanders, were killed in a NATO airstrike Tuesday
night or Wednesday morning officials said. The raid was part of an
ongoing campaign to dislodge insurgents from the area. NATO said no
civilians were present.

The provincial police chief, Alishah Paktiawal, said the two slain Taliban commanders, identified as Shir Zaman and Zhir Gull, oversaw “terrorist operations” in the district.

The NATO force said in a statement that the group
was believed to be coordinating the actions of suicide bombers and
possibly planning an attack on an Afghan border post. It said a cache
of weapons that included assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades
was recovered after the strike.

Together with Afghanistan’s
south, the country’s east has been a focal point of a U.S. military
buildup in recent months. A number of militant groups are known to
operate in the area, including the Taliban, the Haqqani network and
fighters affiliated with al-Qaida. All find shelter in Pakistan between strikes at the NATO force, officials have said.

Bin Laden’s escape from a Western and Afghan manhunt in December 2001
still rankles U.S. officials, who believe it would have changed the
course of what has become a long and draining conflict. This has been
the deadliest year of the war, with nearly 500 American troops killed.

Tora Bora has long been synonymous with missed
opportunities; last year, a report by the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee asserted that the al-Qaida chieftain could have been captured
with a better-coordinated assault on the cave-riddled mountain redoubt.

Paktiawal, the provincial police chief, said Western
and Afghan military operations were continuing in the district of
Chapar Har, adjacent to Pachir Agam. A separate raid on Tuesday night
resulted in the breakup of a 20-member ring responsible for setting
roadside mines and the arrests of two other commanders from Pachir
Agam, he said.

Four more insurgents were seized Wednesday in the
Shirzad district of Nangarhar, the police chief said, including one
believed to be a Pakistani national.

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