U.S. troops capture two al Qaeda fighters

WASHINGTON -- U.S. troops captured two senior al Qaeda fighters and confiscated their computers and cell phones near a huge underground cave complex used by Osama bin Laden\'s terrorist network, the nation\'s top general said Tuesday.\nThe discoveries came as U.S. forces were wrapping up operations in Tora Bora and focusing on Zawar Kili, the complex used as a training camp and assembly point for possible movement from Afghanistan into Pakistan.\nThe two men, found late Monday in a group of 14 suspected members of al Qaeda, were deemed sufficiently important to be removed immediately to the U.S.-run detention center in Kandahar, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Richard Myers said at a Pentagon briefing.\nBesides the computers and phones, "some small arms and training documents were also found," Myers said. "We\'re exploiting those as we speak."\nAmerican warplanes have struck repeatedly at the cave complex and at other areas around Khost in eastern Afghanistan\'s Paktia province. U.S. special forces teams are on the ground in that area, where a Green Beret soldier was killed in an ambush Friday.\nAs U.S. forces sweep through the area, they have found a large network of buildings, bunkers and a warren of underground caves, Myers said.\n"We have found this complex to be very, very extensive. It covers a large area. When we ask people how large, they often describe it as huge," the four-star Air Force general said.\nU.S. bombers struck a cache of tanks and weaponry in the area Sunday. They launched two new strikes on additional buildings and bunkers found nearby late Monday, Myers said.\nAn F-14 fighter jet dropped two precision-guided bombs on one building, and an F-18 jet dropped two more guided bombs on a bunker, he said.\nThe two al Qaeda, captured near the cave complex, were among a group of 14 fighters apprehended without resistance by U.S. forces on the ground, Myers said. They were transferred to a detention center where U.S. officials have been interrogating suspected al Qaeda and Taliban. The other 12 remain in the custody of Afghan officials, the general said.\n"They were the ones of interest that we thought were senior enough where they might have the kind of information that we\'re looking for in terms of … future operations and so forth," Myers added.\nIn an interview with The Associated Press Monday, Gen. Tommy Franks predicted that the U.S. military in the next day or two would gain custody of one or two Taliban or al Qaeda figures of great interest to the United States, but the general in charge of the war in Afghanistan would not elaborate.\nMyers said he did not know whether the two al Qaeda taken to Kandahar were the ones mentioned by Franks.\nThe general noted that "other types of surveillance or reconnaissance" had not in the past indicated the huge extent of the complexes located in the Zawar Kili area.