KABUL, Dec 11 (AFP) - The US-led military in Afghanistan has kicked off a new operation to hunt down Taliban militants in their winter stronghold and force them to accept an Afghan government reconciliation offer, a US military spokesman said Saturday.
The operation, dubbed "Lightning Freedom" and involving the entire 18,000 strong US-led force, began after President Hamid Karzai was sworn in Tuesday as the country's first ever elected head of state, Major Mark McCann told reporters at a regular news briefing in Kabul.
McCann said the US military aimed to track down hardcore Islamic militants and put pressure on more moderate Taliban members to accept an arms-for-amnesty offer from the government.
"The first thing obviously is to facilitate the entire reconciliation process to get these folks to come to the realisation that it is better to become part of the peaceful process than not," he said.
The offer did not include some 50 to 100 Islamic insurgents accused of crimes against humanity whom McCann described as "hardcore idealogues who refuse to change their belief and essentially fight to the death".
McCann said the offensive was also aimed at providing security for the war-shattered country's parliamentary elections which are scheduled for next spring.
"We believe that these operations will establish security conditions that will allow the parliamentary elections in spring to occur," he added.
The comments come a week after US envoy and ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad offered an olive branch to the Taliban on the condition that they lay down their arms.
The US envoy called on Taliban remnants to get in contact with tribal elders and the US-led coalition to declare their allegiance to the Afghan government.
A spokesman claiming to be from the Taliban has rejected the offer.
McCann said the Taliban, whose hardline regime was toppled by a US-led military campaign in late 2001, has split into two groups with a majority eager to join the peace process and a small hardcore still willing to fight.
"So you have got those two groups of Taliban who see things completely differently. We are talking about a sort of split in the Taliban, there are those who see violence and there are those who see peace," he added.
Remnants of the Taliban believed to be supported by Al-Qaeda-linked fighters are still fighting coalition and Afghan government forces in the country's volatile south and southeast.
Three suspected militants were captured by the coalition forces following a gunfight in the south-central province of Uruzgan Thursday, he said.
McCann said the offensive which will go throughout the winter months would target fighters as they retreated to their hideouts during the bitterly cold season.
"It is designed to search out and to destroy the remaining ... Taliban who traditionally we believe go to ground during the winter months."
12/11/2004 12:53 GMT - AFP