WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon is planning a new offensive
in the two-year-old Afghanistan campaign to try to stop remnants of
the Taliban regime and the al-Qaida terrorist network, officials
said yesterday.

Orders have been issued to prepare equipment and supplies,
though the operation will not necessarily require additional troops
in the region, where about 11,000 Americans are still deployed, a
defense official said on condition of anonymity. The upcoming
operation has been dubbed the “spring offensive.”

Another Pentagon official declined to discuss the possibility
that troops would extend operations to the Pakistan side of the
border, where al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and top lieutenants
have long been said to be hiding, but he said that might have to be
the next step.

He said Defense Department officials believe current operations
in Afghanistan are not having the effect they want on the terrorist
network, and they are determined to do more.

Officials already have said they hope to finally capture bin
Laden this year, a development that could benefit President Bush in
the November election.

One senior defense official said Pentagon leaders determined a
couple of months ago that it is important to catch bin Laden, more
for the symbolism than for his military value.

“I can say that Osama bin Laden and (former Taliban
leader) Mullah Omar represent a threat to the world, and they need
to be destroyed, and we believe we will catch them in the next
year,” Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty, a spokesman for military
forces in the region, told CNN.

News of the spring offensive came after the second suicide
attack in as many days on international peacekeepers in Kabul, the
Afghan capital. A British soldier was killed in the attack
yesterday and four others were wounded, officials said.

The bombing came during a memorial ceremony for a Canadian
soldier killed the day before. An Afghan bystander also died in
that attack. The Taliban claimed responsibility for both
bombings.

The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. David W. Barno,
said last month that hundreds of al-Qaida fighters still appear to
be active in Khost and neighboring provinces on the long
Afghanistan-Pakistan border. The area has seen a wave of attacks
this year by insurgents believed to be a mix of Taliban, al-Qaida
and fighters loyal to renegade Afghan warlord Gulbuddin
Hekmatyar.

In recent months, Pakistan has stepped up efforts to track
terrorist fugitives along the rugged frontier with Afghanistan
— amid criticism that Taliban rebels are launching
cross-border attacks from Pakistan’s tribal regions.

A Pentagon official said yesterday that some groups of Taliban
and al-Qaida are believed to be waiting out the harsh Afghan
winter, and the spring offensive is planned to keep them from
launching new activity when the thaw comes.

The Chicago Tribune, which first reported the offensive in
yesterday’s editions, said officials are particularly
determined to hit al-Qaida hard in coming months, partly because of
concerns over two recent assassination attempts against Pakistan
President Pervez Musharraf, whose role as a major U.S. ally in the
war on terror has angered Islamic extremists.