EDITORIAL - A war that’s just starting

And you thought that with the opening of a "second front" in the US-led war on terrorism, Afghanistan had ceased to be a battleground. On Saturday, however, the world learned that the United States had launched its most massive offensive yet against al-Qaeda and Taliban forces in Afghanistan. On Monday, seven US soldiers were killed, six of them when their MH-47 helicopter was shot down. As of yesterday, up to 200 enemy fighters were believed to have been killed in the offensive.

A "thermobaric" bomb was used for the first time by the United States on Saturday; a fireball created by the bomb’s explosion sucked out the oxygen from what American officials described as a "tactically significant" cave. No one would say if US troops believed Osama bin Laden, America’s Public Enemy No. 1, was suspected to be hiding in the cave. But the launching of "Operation Anaconda" is a painful reminder that the war on terror is just starting. Bin Laden remains at large and al-Qaeda remains intact, with the terror network believed to have an affiliate in Southeast Asia.

About 1,000 US troops are fighting alongside an estimated 1,000 local allies in Afghanistan. Unlike US-led offensives in recent years, this one isn’t turning out to be a surgical strike. The US is deploying ground troops to get several hundred determined and well-armed enemy fighters in the inhospitable, snow-covered moun-tains of eastern Afghanistan. Meanwhile, US troops are in Mindanao, "advising" Filipino soldiers in the battle against the Abu Sayyaf. American "trainers" will also be sent soon to the former Soviet state of Georgia and to Yemen.

Islamist terrorism clearly did not end with the setting up of an interim government in Kabul. US Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge advised Americans to get used to the fact that terrorism would be a "permanent condition." Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, on a visit to Washington, also warned that the United States continued to host terrorist "sleeper cells," all waiting for the right time to attack. The warnings apply to the rest of the world as well.