US, Afghan forces battle rebels in mountains

US and Afghan forces are fighting a large band of rebels in the mountains of southern Afghanistan, in the biggest battle in the country for nearly a year, officials said yesterday.

As Washington shifts its attention to Iraq, the US military has come under increasingly frequent attack in Afghanistan, suggesting that 14 months after toppling the Taliban regime they have not succeeded in wiping out the fundamentalist militia.

US military spokesman Colonel Roger King said at least 18 rebels loyal to renegade commander Gulbuddin Hekmatyar had been killed in the fighting, describing it as the largest group of enemy forces since Operation Anaconda last March.

King said American B-1 bombers, AC-130 gunships and Apache Helicopters as well as European F-16 warplanes had attacked enemy positions for more than 12 hours throughout the night in a range of hills not far from the Pakistani border.

Anaconda was the biggest US ground offensive of the Afghan war so far, when about 1,500 US troops tried to flush out a major stronghold of about 1,000 Taliban and al Qaeda militants from their cave hideouts in eastern Afghanistan.

King said US and allied warplanes had dropped nineteen 2,000 lb bombs and two guided 500 lb pounds on enemy positions near a series of caves in the remote hills.

"There were repeated gun engagements by the AC-130 and the AH-64 Apaches," he added.

Norway's government said its warplanes had dropped bombs in battle for the first time since WWII.