BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, May 2 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Some 1,000 mainly British troops have launched a fresh operation, codenamed “Operation Snipe” against a supposed "key base" for alleged terrorists in southeastern Afghanistan, officers said Thursday, May 2, news agencies reported.

Officers said the British-led operation targeted what they described as “terrorist” base in previously unexplored mountain terrain.

"So far there has been no fire from the enemy or coalition forces. Today we start moving in," British Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Harradine told Agence France-Presse (AFP) at this coalition base north of Kabul.

It is the largest combat action for the British troops since they began deploying in Afghanistan in March to back up U.S. and other coalition forces battling Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters.

Senior officers admit there is a significant risk of casualties, the British daily newspaper, The Guardian, reported.

However, Brigadier Roger Lane said allied troops, including Afghans, were "equipped with a full range of combat power" and were operating in "one of the few remaining areas that had never before been investigated by coalition ground forces."

Harradine said the operation, which was British-led but involved U.S. troops and air support, began four days ago.

He said members of the British 45 Commando were among "about 1,000" troops deployed, but few other details could be released as the action was ongoing.

The location was not revealed, but Harradine said it was taking place in "rough terrain, a high peaks area" between up to 3,940 meters.

U.S. Major Bryan Hilferty said Operation Snipe was the largest maneuver within the overall U.S.-led “Operation Mountain Lion,” which was announced overnight in Washington.

"Mountain Lion is a nationwide operation focused on eastern Afghanistan to capture or kill Al-Qaeda. We have several operations going on. [Operation] Snipe is the bigger one," Hilferty said.

While U.S. officials in Washington said several hundred troops were now in Khost and Paktia provinces, British officers at Bagram Base said Snipe was taking place in another area, suggesting it may be further south in Paktia province, also bordering Pakistan.

One American official said coalition forces were pursuing small groups of suspected Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters on the Afghan side of the border, but not inside Pakistan.

But The Washington Post reported that conventional U.S. forces, such as the 101st Airborne Division units, have been given permission to cross into Pakistan. The United States already has Special Forces troops operating with the Pakistani military in Pakistan.

"Small groups can become large groups but so far we don't see Anaconda-like regroupings," he said in Washington Wednesday, May 1.

Anaconda, the largest U.S. ground operation in the Afghan campaign, targeted a fortified Taliban and Al-Qaeda mountain redoubt in Paktia in March, during which U.S. troops suffered heavy losses.

Although U.S. commanders claimed that hundreds of fighters were killed in the 17-day action, few bodies were found, raising suspicions that many of the fighters escaped across the border to Pakistan.

"The situation in Afghanistan is far from over," U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Wednesday, claiming that Al-Qaeda and Taliban forces were active on both sides of the border.

Rumsfeld, who returned Monday, April 29, from Afghanistan, declined to confirm that hundreds of U.S. troops had been deployed into the border area or that U.S. military personnel were with Pakistani forces across the border.

Meanwhile, the U.S. daily newspaper, the Post reported that a rocket was fired early Wednesday, May 1 at a building where U.S. troops operating in rugged northwestern Pakistan’s tribal regions were sleeping.

The rocket missed its target and no one was injured, the Post said.