http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_1954000/1954306.stm

Saturday, 27 April, 2002, 08:27 GMT 09:27 UK

British & U.STroops fighting in pakistan

UK troops have been clearing mountain caves in Afghanistan
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has arrived in
Afghanistan just hours after three rockets were fired at
Kabul's international airport.

Sources from the International Security Assistance Force
(Isaf) said the rockets landed close to their base east
of the airport.

An Isaf spokesman said there was no damage to
airport facilities and there were no casualties in the
attack.

Mr Rumsfeld arrived at
Bagram air base north of
Kabul, where he was
greeted by the commander
of the coalition forces
Major General Frank
Hagenbeck, and Brigadier
Roger Lane, the head of
the British task force.

The US defence secretary
will later fly to Kabul to
meet interim Afghan
leader Hamid Karzai.

A BBC correspondent in
Kabul says the rocket
attack shows that the
security situation in
Afghanistan is not
completely under control.

The Isaf spokesman said one rocket landed on one of
the hard surfaces of the taxiway and broke up without
exploding. He described it as a crude, improvised
device.

Security fears

America and its allies' main concern in the region is an
increase in guerrilla activities by Osama Bin Laden's
al-Qaeda network and the Taleban in the coming
months, as winter snows melt.

Mr Rumsfeld told journalists at the start of his four-day
visit to the region: "My guess is as spring comes and
the weather improves they will try to communicate with
each other, they will try to attack the interim authority
as well as US and coalition forces."

It is Mr Rumsfeld's second visit to the region since the
11 September terrorist attacks on the United States and
comes amid speculation that US special forces have
extended their operations into Pakistan.

Border hideouts

US, British and Afghan troops have continued to search
caves and other al-Qaeda hide-outs in Afghanistan,
gathering weapons, documents and other materials left
behind when enemy forces fled the area.

But there have also been reports of a new offensive by
allied special forces - possibly backed up by British
forces - against guerrillas hiding in Pakistan.

Many of the leaders of
al-Qaeda and
Afghanistan's former
Taleban rulers are believed
to be hiding in the rugged
tribal north-west of
Pakistan, able to travel
between eastern
Afghanistan and Pakistan
through a mountainous
border area impossible to
seal off.

The US and UK
governments have refused
to confirm whether their
troops are fighting in
Pakistan, but if true it
means a whole new front
has opened in the war
against terrorism.

Pakistan denial

"We do not characterise what other countries are doing
or what we are doing in other countries," Mr Rumsfeld
said.

But he did acknowledge that "agencies of the United
States Government" were involved in the arrest last
month in Pakistan of Abu Zubaydah, the senior
lieutenant to Bin Laden.

Officials in Islamabad said on Thursday that the two
countries share intelligence, but they denied that
Pakistani forces were operating under the guidance of
US advisers.

One official told the Associated Press news agency that
Pakistan was reluctant to acknowledge contacts with the
United States about joint military cooperation in tracking
down terrorists out of concern for public opinion.