AFGHANISTAN - Dec. 30 - Combat Operation Ends.

A US military statement says US-led forces ended their Operation Avalanche, the largest post-war combat, which reduced the Taliban threat. (The statement makes no mention of the deaths of 15 children in a series of botched raids around the start as 2,000 troops fanned out across southern and eastern provinces. The level of attacks by remnants of the Taliban and their militant allies dropped during three weeks of the operation, but it did not prevent deadly raids in the south and east or a suicide bomb in Kabul). The statement says the operation ensured the constitutional Loya Jirga (Grand Assembly) in Kabul was not disrupted and that the opening of a resurfaced highway between Kabul and Kandahar was not delayed. It says, 10 enemy personnel were killed during the operation and 4 were wounded. The casualties included 2 Afghan soldiers dead and 2 Afghan soldiers wounded, with 2 members of the 12,000-strong US-led force in Afghanistan were also wounded while more than 100 suspected Islamic militants were detained. (Earlier this year the US military, hunting remnants of the Taliban, Al-Qaeda and other Islamic militant groups in Afghanistan, announced a change in emphasis from combat operations to reconstruction. Combat operations have largely failed to pin down their targets. Those efforts will focus on the troubled southern and eastern provinces, where the Taliban are believed to be strongest. But Taliban deputy operational commander in the south, Mullah Sabir Momin, said the militia planned to attack cities. He said the group had carried out a suicide attack in Kabul on Dec. 28 in which 5 security officials and 2 bombers were killed. He added: "A group of 200 mujahideen had penetrated various Afghan cities. In Kabul alone, 130 trained Taliban are present on suicide missions. They can manufacture powerful bombs with limited resources". There are 5,700 international peacekeepers in Kabul).