Free Republic

KORANGAL VALLEY, Afghanistan - At night, the mountains glow from artillery strikes. By day, gunbattles echo down the valley. Five years after the Sept. 11 attack, Americans are battling al-Qaida militants in this remote area where the U.S. military says the group hatched the terror plot. Only about 100 hard-core Afghan, Arab and Pakistani insurgents operate in the Korangal Valley, but this is where the U.S. last year suffered its worst combat loss in Afghanistan and where the military believes at least second-tier al-Qaida leaders still hide and plan attacks. Many of the U.S. soldiers here see their offensive as...

KANDAGAL, Afghanistan - U.S. troops on Wednesday launched a fearsome barrage of artillery and rockets into a mountainous militant stronghold in eastern Afghanistan where they suffered their deadliest combat loss more than a year ago. Despite high casualties suffered by Taliban-led militants since the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001 and tough military action to root them out, insurgents still pose as deadly a threat as ever to the scores of troops from the New York-based 10th Mountain Division deployed near the Pakistan border. No militant casualty figures were immediately available from the heavy bombardment that sent plumes of...