AFGHANISTAN: US marines who investigated an al-Qaeda compound in southern Afghanistan earlier this week found a 14-hut compound, a dozen rifles and arms manuals, but gained little fresh intelligence, US press reported yesterday.
Some 200 marines took part in the two-day operation on New Year's Day to the compound 100 kilometres west of Kandahar.
The compound had escaped US detection and showed no signs of having been bombed, the New York Times and the Washington Post said.
The compound, which lacked running water and electricity, "had been occupied and deserted and reoccupied during the past several weeks", Maj Chris Hughes of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit told the Post.
He said the 20-vehicle marine column was accompanied by helicopter gunships and Harrier fighter jets.
"We went with the forces necessary in case this place was inhabited and the inhabitants were fully armed," Maj Hughes said.
The site was deserted and the local population turned out to be friendly, the dailies said.
The marines, working with Gul Agha Shirzai, the US- backed warlord who controls the region, brought back "several small arms and some documentation" from the camp, Maj Hughes was quoted as saying by the Times.
People living in a nearby village were reimbursed an undisclosed amount of money "for their time and discomfort", he added.
The Post said a search of the compound yielded "a dozen or so" rifles, small arms instruction manuals and other documents.
Maj Hughes said the find at the compound held only modest intelligence potential.
"There was a handmade obstacle course, balance beams, holes for guys to shoot each other, probably with water guns or whatever they use," Sgt Jason Gonzalez, told the Post.
"There were definitely things scattered about . . . There were a lot of books, some photocopied."
Sgt Gonzalez also told the Washington Post he recognized instruction manuals and diagrams for weapons such as AK-47 and AK-74 firearms.