US vows to capture bin Laden by year end

The US-led coalition in Afghanistan is confident of capturing al Qaeda terror network chief Osama bin Laden, who has long eluded determined efforts to catch him, by the end of the year, a US military spokesman said Wednesday.
Lieutenant Colonel Bryan Hilferty said that the hunt for militant remnants of the ousted Islamic fundamentalist Taleban regime including its leader Mullah Omar, bin Laden and former Afghan premier and warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was continuing.
"Osama bin Laden, Mullah Omar and Hekmatyar represent a threat to the world and they need to be destroyed. We believe we will catch them within this year," Hilferty told reporters in Kabul.
Meanwhile, Hilferty said three US soldiers have been injured by a home-made bomb planted by anti-coalition militants in north-eastern Afghanistan.
The three were wounded on Monday when their vehicle hit an improvised explosive device planted on a road frequently used by the troops near Asadabad of Kunar province, he said without giving any further details on the attack.
The incident occurred one day before an attack in which three more US soldiers were injured in direct gunfire with suspected militants in south-eastern Paktika province, Hilferty said.
"Three soldiers were wounded while pursuing anti-coalition militia east of Urgun," the Colonel said.
Hilferty did not say who was behind the attacks but similar acts have been blamed on Taleban remnants, their al-Qaeda allies and followers Hekmatyar.
According to a Taleban spokesman, who spoke to AFP via satellite phone from the south-eastern region, remnants of the regime claimed responsibility for Tuesday's attack.
They said a US convoy of four vehicles had been ambushed in Dila district following a meeting with Pakistani military officials near the border.
The spokesman, who calls himself Abdul Samad, had claimed that only one vehicle could escape the attack and that at least eight US soldiers were killed.
"Their vehicles were not destroyed," Hilferty said, adding that he had no information on anti-coalition casualties.
Southern and south-eastern Afghanistan have been hard hit by an apparent resurgence of the Taleban more than two years after US-led forces launched operations to topple the hard-line militia.
A 12,000-strong US-led international coalition is hunting members of the Taleban and their al Qaeda allies, thought to be re-grouping along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region.