[size=4]U.S. Units Attacking Al Qaeda In Pakistan[/size=4]
[b]Covert Operation Straddles Border[/b]

By Dana Priest and Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, April 25, 2002; Page A01

Covert U.S. military units have been conducting reconnaissance operations in Pakistan in recent weeks and participated in attacks on suspected al Qaeda hide-outs there, opening a new front in a shadowy war being waged by the United States along the mountainous Afghan-Pakistan border, according to U.S. military officials.

U.S. Special Operations troops based on the Afghanistan side of the frontier have been attacked several times a week over the last month and have been in several firefights with al Qaeda militants, these officials said. The Americans have suffered some casualties, though no American has been killed, officials said.

The new U.S. strategy, which defense officials have not publicized, helps explain the evolution of the Afghanistan conflict since U.S. forces early last month conducted a week-long ground and air assault on al Qaeda concentrations in the Shahikot valley south of Kabul, the Afghan capital.

Unlike that battle -- and others earlier in the war -- U.S. Special Forces and covert soldiers from the Army's Delta Force are now operating in small groups against handfuls of al Qaeda fighters. Moreover, the al Qaeda fighters are no longer concentrating but have gone underground or are mixing with the population, forcing the Americans to devise strategies to draw them out.

[img]http://a188.g.akamaitech.net/f/188/920/1h/www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/images/I44359-2002Apr24[/img]

Caption: At a checkpoint north of Khost last month, Afghanistan and American Special Forces attempt to pinpoint al Qaeda and Taliban sympathizers. (AP File Photo)

See remainder of article at:[url]http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44160-2002Apr24.html[/url]

Eric The(Informative)Hun[>]:)]

Maybe the Al Qaeda need to think about what happened to Pablo Escobar after Delta paid him a visit....

you just dont F with delta.