KABUL, Sept 11 (AFP) - Top Al-Qaeda chiefs are still commanding operations in Afghanistan with Osama bin Laden's terrorist group being implicated in a deadly car bomb attack in Kabul last month, the US military said Saturday.
Major General Eric Olson, the operational commander of US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan, confirmed that "senior leaders of Al-Qaeda" are working in Afghanistan, coalition spokesman Master Sergeant Ann Bennett told AFP.
Bennett could not say if the general had referred directly to bin Laden or his deputy Ayman Al-Zawahiri.
According to Bennett, the general indicated that the tactics used in Afghanistan convinced him that senior figures from the group were involved in the planning and direction of operations.
Foreign fighters were in the south of the country and a link had been established between the August 29 car bomb in Kabul, which killed between seven and nine people, and a "group that has ties to Al-Qaeda".
The general also said the battle against remnants of the ousted Taliban regime was far from over, but if next month's Afghan presidential elections come off successfully then it could discourage other militants, she added.