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[Don't worry, it's coming....] AFP Monday March 25, 11:51 AM Al-Qaeda forces regrouping in Afghanistan: Cheney US Vice President Dick Cheney said al-Qaeda forces were still trying to regroup inside Afghanistan but that US forces were working to thwart their plans, and the consolidation of a strong Afghan government. Speaking on CNN's "Late Edition" program, Cheney confirmed Sunday that intelligence showed al-Qaeda was "regrouping" and "clearly would like to" take action against the United States. "And we see movement," Cheney added. "There are still al-Qaeda scattered around Afghanistan. There are, I'm sure, going to be efforts by them to try to organize themselves enough so that they can launch an attack at least on our forces in Afghanistan," the US vice president said. "We saw, obviously, a coalescing of a group in the area where we launched Operation Anaconda a couple of weeks ago, and very successfully eliminated a big chunk of the al-Qaeda," Cheney pointed out. Al-Qaeda and its leader, Osama bin Laden, are blamed for the September 11 attacks on the United States that left about 3,000 people dead. Meanwhile, the commander in charge of the Afghan operation, General Tommy Franks, speaking Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" show said the United States still had to complete its task in Afghanistan. "What we have left to do is be sure that we've completed what we started out to do 169 days ago, and that's to assure ourselves that the al-Qaeda network inside Afghanistan is destroyed, and so we're going to continue to do that work until we are, in fact, satisfied," Franks said. He said allied forces were "making progress in getting that done" citing the ouster of the Taliban militia as a governing entity in its entirety. A US Central Command spokesman in Tampa, Florida, declined to comment "for operational reasons" on whether a new operation was in the planning to counter any regrouping. "Anaconda is a clear indication of the support of the Afghan forces as well as coalition forces that if there's an issue with remaining al-Qaeda or Taliban that we'll address them appropriately," spokesman Major Brad Lowell told AFP in a telephone interview. "We have said all along there's potential for pockets to exist," said Lowell, adding that the United States would take action "if the need arises." "We continue to watch all of Afghanistan. We have assets and resources available to do that for reconnaissance on the ground, intelligence, cooperation with Afghan forces," the spokesman said. Coalition troops, meanwhile, were on Sunday continuing to scour the Shahi Kot valley in eastern Afghanistan following the conclusion of Operation Anaconda last Monday. The searches recently uncovered "more small arms, machine guns, mortars and documents and a large quantity of munitions," Major Bryan Hilferty told press at Bagram Air Base, a US military base north of Kabul, without specifying exactly when. Eight US servicemen were killed in the early days of Operation Anaconda, which began March 2, and US military officials say "hundreds" of Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters were killed. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Movies - coverage of the 74th Academy Awards® http://movies.yahoo.com/ --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
