Airstrikes against Taliban continue

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - U.S. Army Special Forces attacked a Taliban stronghold north of Kandahar, killing a number of fighters and taking 27 prisoners, U.S. officials said yesterday. One American soldier was wounded in the attack.

Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in Washington that American troops attacked adjacent sites in a mountain region 60 miles north of Kandahar.

"Our forces attacked two compounds and detained 27 individuals," Myers said at the Pentagon. "There were enemy forces killed in this action and one U.S. special forces soldier was slightly injured. He was wounded in the ankle and was then evacuated."

The soldier, who was not identified, was the first American battlefield casualty since Army Sgt. 1st Class Nathan Chapman was killed Jan. 4 in an ambush in eastern Afghanistan. Eleven U.S. troops have been killed in aviation crashes during the Afghan campaign.

U.S. officials said they believed the prisoners seized may include both Taliban and members of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network but they were unsure whether senior leaders were among them.

"There's a whole lot more of these," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said of Taliban and al-Qaida outposts. "We're going to keep at them until we get them."

Also yesterday, the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press reported that U.S. warplanes bombed a suspected al-Qaida terrorist camp near the eastern town of Khost. The agency quoted residents as saying the camp had been abandoned for some time.

The report could not be independently confirmed.

The airstrike would be the first since several days of intensive bombing of a suspected al-Qaida tunnel complex near Khost ended Jan. 14. Residents said many houses were destroyed and at least a dozen people killed.