Afghan Rebels Pepper U.S. Troops With Missiles

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan — American-led troops shrugged off more than a dozen scattered missile attacks by rebels and pressed on elsewhere with a roundup of possible Taliban fugitives, capturing at least 13 suspects, U.S. Army and Afghan officials said Friday.

The missiles caused no injuries, but the attacks Thursday were the highest number of rockets fired on U.S. positions in Afghanistan in at least two months, Col. Roger King said.

The barrage of 107-millimeter rockets coincided with an intensified search through mountain caves and valley villages of southern Kandahar province by hundreds of U.S. troops tracking down Taliban and Al Qaeda fugitives.

Abdul Razzak Panjshiri, Afghan security chief in the nearby Spin Buldak area, said his country’s forces seized 12 assault rifles, time bombs and ammunition.

Interrogators were trying to determine the 13 suspects’ identities. Two people arrested Friday spoke only Arabic, indicating they may be foreign Al Qaeda members rather than local Taliban, an Afghan official said.

The sweep was expected to continue for two to three days. About 600 soldiers on the ground were backed by Black Hawk, Chinook and Apache helicopters along with armored Humvees.

The missile attacks took place at bases more than 100 miles from where the U.S. soldiers were carrying out the raids with Afghan forces. King played down the strikes but acknowledged that the attacks broke a period of relative calm.

In months of rocket attacks by rebel fighters, no one from the multinational coalition fighting terrorism in Afghanistan has been killed and no bases have been hit, King said.

Most rebels do not have launchers that improve the aim of the rockets, he said.