The U.S. military has been engaged in heavyfighting in eastern Afghanistan for months against groups of Afghan andPakistani militants as well as foreign fighters.
Lieutenant Commander Walter Matthews says one of Friday's raids targeted a compound of an al-Qaida leader.
"InDara Noor District, coalition forces targeted a known al-Qaida leader,believed to facilitate the movement of foreign fighters and weaponsinto Kunar province," he said. "The al-Qaida leader is also believed tobe in contact with other militants in the region, coordinating attacksagainst coalition forces and innocent civilians."
The military did not say if the leader was killed during the raid, but said troops killed one armed woman during the operation.
Local officials say they are looking into reports that some civilians were killed during the operation.
Otheroperations targeted the so-called Haqqani network, a group of militantsled by Jalauddin Haqqani, a long-time Afghan guerrilla commander whoU.S. officials have alleged has ties to al-Qaida militants andPakistani intelligence agents.
Meanwhile, a British newspapersays the head of the country's elite special forces in Afghanistan hasabruptly resigned because of a lack of armored vehicles for his troops.
reported Major Sebastian Morely claimed TheBritish Defense Ministry ignored his warnings that the military'slightly armored "Snatch Land Rovers" are too vulnerable for the Afghanmission. The major blamed the deaths of four troops on what he calledthe ministry's "chronic underinvestment."
The Defense Ministryresponded that officials are focused on providing vehicles to protecttroops from "ever-shifting threats posed by the enemy."