Pentagon watching volatile eastern Afghanistan, pressing hunt for al-Qaida, Taliban

Wednesday, March 27th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) _ The U.S. military expects Taliban and al-Qaida fighters to try to start regrouping in eastern Afghanistan, but it is too soon to tell how many there are and what they are doing, Pentagon officials said.

American forces have long focused on the region near the Pakistani border and believe pockets of Taliban or al-Qaida are holed up there. But perceptions of what's happening shifts as the enemy moves and new intelligence is received, defense officials said Tuesday.

The area around the town of Khost is a major land route into Pakistan to the east and borders where U.S.-led troops just conducted the largest land assault of the five-month campaign against Taliban and al-Qaida forces.

U.S. officials played down a report by Afghans that there have been recent sightings of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and top aide Ayman al-Zawahri in the area.

``The Khost area is a tense situation. ... It remains a dangerous place,'' Pentagon briefer Brig. Gen. John W. Rosa Jr. said at a news conference.

The city itself also is saturated with weapons and has been the site of hostilities between competing Afghan warlords.

Rosa did not reveal how many enemy may be in the area, how they are communicating and how they are operating.

``But it's always worth repeating, we expect and anticipate additional pockets of resistance,'' Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said. ``It is the MO (modus operandi) of these people to try to regroup in some shape or fashion, so we fully expect it and that's one of the reasons we're still there.''

Rosa said that while there had been no engagements with enemy fighters in more than a week, coalition pilots flew 150 missions over Afghanistan Monday and continued to search the area of Operation Anaconda _ the large ground assault completed earlier this month against other regroupings of al-Qaida and Taliban.

The flights included surveillance and reconnaissance planes and bombers on standby in case enemy forces are sighted.

Commanders have said they expect to encounter fighters in smaller groups and that activity will increase as spring weather emerges and troops on both sides can move around better.

Rosa said coalition forces could face extra problems with smaller enemy groupings.

``Obviously, you'd like to have them in one big cluster and be able to mount an attack and do as much damage as you can,'' he said. ``When they get in smaller clusters, it makes it a bigger challenge to locate them, to track them, and each one of those small pockets, you have to develop a plan of attack. It makes it a little bit more intense from our perspective.''