Alternative URL http://www.nctimes.net/news/2002/20020406/62240.html (North Country Times web site, 6 April 2002)

"The goal has never been to get bin Laden," Myers said Friday in an interview with CNN's "Novak, Hunt & Shields"

No large anti-Taliban operations in Afghanistan looming, Gen. Franks says
Fri Apr 5, 6:47 PM ET

By MATT KELLEY, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The war in Afghanistan (news - web sites) has badly damaged the al-Qaida terrorist network, but the group probably is still capable of mounting terrorist attacks, the war's U.S. commander said Friday.

"This one also is in the category of a long way to go before we can relax," Gen. Tommy Franks told reporters.

Franks said there are no immediate plans for any military action in Afghanistan as large as Operation Anaconda, the 17-day assault on hundreds suspected Taliban and al-Qaida holdouts last month. He said he has no plans to add to the U.S. force in Afghanistan, which currently numbers about 6,500 troops.

Those troops are busy searching for remaining groups of Taliban and al-Qaida, said Franks, head of the U.S. Central Command.

"We will do that work until we have satisfied ourselves that there is not the possibility of a remaining terrorist network in Afghanistan," Franks told Pentagon (news - web sites) reporters via a video link from his headquarters in Tampa, Florida.

With Sunday marking six months since the start of the U.S. campaign in Afghanistan, Franks said the operation had met many of its goals. The extreme Islamic Taliban regime is out of power, Afghans are getting humanitarian aid and al-Qaida is on the run, Franks said.

"I think without a doubt the operations of al-Qaida coming out of Afghanistan have been dramatically damaged, dramatically degraded," Franks said.

But he added, "I think it would be naive of me to say that al-Qaida does not continue to have capabilities to conduct terrorist operations as we speak."

The capture, killing and scattering of midlevel al-Qaida operatives is perhaps more important than the fact that al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) is still at large, said Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

"The goal has never been to get bin Laden," Myers said Friday in an interview with CNN's "Novak, Hunt & Shields" program to be aired Saturday. In the days after the Sept. 11 attacks, President George W. Bush (news - web sites) had said the United States would bring bin Laden to justice, "dead or alive."

Outside of Afghanistan, the U.S. military is "continuing to build our intelligence and situational awareness in Somalia," Franks said. Al-Qaida has operated in the Horn of Africa country in the past, and Somalia's lack of an effective government could help the terrorist network regroup there.

"It's too soon to tell" whether that is happening, Franks said.

Franks said the United States was working with other countries in the region to gather information about the situation in Somalia. There are no U.S. special operations forces troops in Somalia, Franks said.