Military moves meant to stave off Taliban, al-Qaida threat

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The largest U.S. military offensive here in two years, launched this week, aims to knock Taliban insurgents off balance and keep them from attacking a historic constitutional council, the American ambassador said Tuesday.

U.S. officials have "specific" intelligence the Taliban and their al-Qaida allies are planning an all-out campaign to wreck the grand council, or loya jirga, due to start this weekend, a military spokesman said.

As part of the American offensive, hundreds of U.S. troops swooped in on a fleet of helicopters Tuesday to storm an area of eastern Afghanistan along the border with Pakistan, the spokesman said.

The loya jirga is considered a cornerstone event in Afghan-istan's long path to recovery after U.S.-led forces ousted the hardline Taliban regime two years ago. The delegates, who have begun filtering into Kabul from all around the country, must ratify a new constitution, paving the way for national elections scheduled for June.

Stepped-up attacks

But the gathering comes as Taliban insurgents have stepped up attacks in southern and eastern Afghanistan against civilians and aid workers, along with U.S. forces and their allies.

"We anticipate that they will try to be more active. To go after loya jirga-related activities and the loya jirga itself," the new American ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, said at a briefing for foreign journalists at the heavily fortified embassy grounds.

"We have intelligence of specific threats against the constitutional loya jirga," military spokesman Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty said from Bagram air base, north of the capital. But he added that "we think we have a pretty good security plan."

Elsewhere in the capital on Tuesday, about 2,000 Afghan fighters paraded to mark an ongoing program that encourages the country's many armed militia members to lay down their arms. The U.N.-sponsored program aims to disarm 100,000 men within three years, though only 2,000 in the country and 184 in the capital have so far done so.

The U.S. military's Operation Avalanche, launched on Monday, involves some 2,000 soldiers to sweep the most lawless regions of Afghanistan, in the south and east. The military has touted it as its largest operation since the Taliban's fall.

The offensive aims to knock the rebels off balance ahead of the grand council, "to keep them busy protecting and defending themselves," Khalilzad said.

In eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, several hundred soldiers from the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, carried in on helicopters, stormed an area east of Khost, a restive town along the border with Pakistan, Hilferty said. It was not clear if there was any combat.

The Khost area has seen several recent attacks on coalition personnel. U.S. and Afghan officials have long charged that Taliban rebels and their al-Qaida allies flee back across the mountainous border into Pakistan after launching attacks.

Persistent Taliban violence has undermined U.S. claims to increasing stability in the country. Recently, Taliban fighters have been blamed for killing a French U.N. refugee worker in Ghazni, south of Kabul, a botched bombing of a bazaar in Kandahar intended for U.S. troops, as well as a string of attacks on government workers.

The Afghan government announced Tuesday that the grand council would begin Saturday, four days late, because of delays in electing delegates and to allow participants from Afghanistan's 32 far-flung provinces time to travel to the capital.

Khalilzad hailed the loya jirga, saying it was a sign of the progress Afghanistan has made after decades of bloodshed.

"The Afghans are discussing issues that they have not discussed with a freedom they have not had during the past 5,000-year history," Khalilzad said. "The issues that they are discussing include the role of religion, form of government, balance of power between the center and the regions, the role of women, the national anthem ... They are debating it with freedom and with confidence."

Some 500 delegates have already begun trickling into the capital for the event, to be held in an enormous tent in the city's northwest.

Hilferty said the fact that delegates have so far been able to travel safely to Kabul for the gathering was a strong indication that security was improving in the country.

"There is no doubt in my mind that (fugitive Taliban leader) Mullah Omar would like to kill all the delegates to the loya jirga," Hilferty said. "He can't."

Security has always been of great concern for the gathering.

The capital, patrolled by a 5,000-strong international peacekeeping force, has been relatively stable, but Taliban rebels and their al-Qaida allies have been launching increasing attacks in the provinces. A bomb exploded Nov. 22 outside the capital's Intercontinental Hotel, the site of the press center for the loya jirga.

The 50-page draft constitution was unveiled Nov. 3 after a year of work and many delays. It envisions an Islamic republic with a powerful presidency and a bicameral legislature. The president would be commander in chief of the military, appoint one-third of the legislature's upper house and name judges, military officers, police and national security officials.

It also guarantees a role for women in government and enshrines their right to an education -- in contrast to the Taliban, which banished girls and women from schools and public life.