American bombers strike

SURMAD, Afghanistan -- U.S. bombers pounded al Qaeda and Taliban positions in the eastern mountains of Afghanistan on Sunday after a 1,500-strong coalition ground attack the day before failed to dislodge the well-armed fighters.\nU.S. and Afghan forces backed by the airstrikes engaged in more "heavy" fighting Sunday against "several hundred" opposition fighters, said Maj. Ralph Mills, spokesman for Central Command in Tampa, Fla.\nMills said that U.S. strike aircraft, bombers and AC-130 gunships were targeting enemy vehicles, mortars, troops and caves. He would not estimate how much longer the fighting would go on.\nU.S. Chinook helicopters ferried in supplies to American and other troops still in the hills, a local commander said.\nOne American soldier and three Afghan fighters were killed Saturday on the first day of the ground operation, the Pentagon said. Six Americans were injured and airlifted out, a doctor at Gardez hospital said.\nThe assault, which began with bombing raids late Friday, was believed to be the largest joint U.S.-Afghan military operation of the 5-month-old terrorism war. Pro-U.S. Afghan troops approached the hide-outs from three directions to isolate the fighters and prevent them from escaping.\nAfghan troops warned the operation to dislodge the regrouping Taliban and al Qaeda forces from their hide-outs in the mountain caves here in Paktia province was far from over.\n"You can't do everything in one operation," said Raza Khan, an Afghan fighter. "This is Afghanistan. This is a guerrilla war."\nSunday's airstrikes repeatedly pounded targets in the Shah-e-Kot mountains 20 miles east of Surmad and the Kharwar range to the west in Logar province.\nThe bombardments sent thick, black plumes of smoke above the snowcapped peaks and shook the ground in Surmad, where a constant stream of bombers streaked overhead.\nOne Afghan commander, Abdul Matin Hassan Kheil, said his men came under fire Sunday from mortars, heavy artillery and rockets fired from al-Qaeda positions where Arabs, Chechens and Pakistanis were believed holed up.\nKheil estimated it would take a month to push the fighters from their mountain strongholds.\nAfghan officials say as many as 5,000 al Qaeda and Taliban fighters are regrouping in eastern Afghanistan and just over the border in Pakistan, urging the faithful to wage holy war against U.S. forces.\nInternational aid workers and Afghan sources say al Qaeda and Taliban hiding in the Kharwar district targeted Sunday by airstrikes are being protected by the Taliban's former deputy foreign minister, Abdul Rehman Zahid.