KABUL, May 6 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - American, British and allied Afghani forces have started wide-range search missions in the mountainous area of Garank in the state of Khost in East Afghanistan to search for the remains of the Al Qaeda and Taliban networks in an operation called “Operation Mountain Lion”.

The coalition forces have gathered information on the area which is inhabited by Pashtun tribes and have gathered weaponry during this operation which started on April 29 and is still continuing.

The official spokesman of the English forces in the Bagram airport, near Kabul, said that this operation started in one of the areas in South East Afghanistan and includes almost 1000 soldiers, nearly half of them part of the Team 45 affiliated to the Royal English Marine Commandos. He added that several caves were discovered in the operations.

Similar operations took place nearly five days ago in the mountainous area of Mizzi which lies nearly 30 kilometers south of the city of Gardez in the mostly Pashtun Paktia state.

Meanwhile, four U.S. soldiers were severely hurt Saturday morning, May 4, in a missile attack on the U.S. forces’ center in Khost airport. IRNA news agency reported that unidentified gunmen fired 10 missiles from north Khost on the center and that two of the injured were transferred to the nearby Pakistani city of Peshawar and the other two were transferred to a local hospital.

Late Sunday, May 5, three rockets exploded within several hundred meters of a U.S.-led coalition base in eastern Afghanistan but there were no casualties, a military spokesman said.

U.S. Major Bryan Hilferty said the apparent attack occurred around 2:00 am (0930 GMT Sunday) at the airport in Khost, a major staging point for ongoing operations against al-Qaeda and Taliban.

"In Khost ... three rockets exploded within several hundred meters from coalition forces, near the base. There were no injuries," he said.

"Also in eastern Afghanistan, coalition and Afghan military forces discovered and confiscated a large cache of rockets, mortar and machine gun ammunition ... We also found four trucks of ammunition in this area," he said.

In another development, the Pakistani daily newspaper Mashraq said Sunday, May 5, that members of the Islamic Scholars Association and the Muslim Students Organization said that they will not allow the U.S. forces to enter religious schools searching for alleged ‘terrorists” from the Al Qaeda and Taliban movement.

Pakistani Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider left for Washington on Monday to discuss the war on terror with U.S. officials, a spokesman said, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"The visit is in the context of the current situation in Afghanistan and the ongoing cooperation against terrorism," an interior ministry spokesman told AFP.

During his four-day stay, the minister would meet senior officials, including Attorney General John Ashcroft.

The talks would focus on the situation along the western border and Pakistan's efforts to prevent Al-Qaeda and Taliban members escaping from Afghanistan across the rugged frontier.

Press reports said the minister would discuss the possibility of acquiring surveillance helicopters.

The United States has promised assistance for extra vigilance along the border, where small numbers of U.S. troops are already helping Pakistani forces track down “suspected terrorist” leaders.

Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf told reporters Saturday that Islamabad was looking for more technical help from Washington to seal the border, but did not want U.S. troops to launch operations on Pakistani soil.