WASHINGTON'The nation's top military commander and the general who is directing the U.S. assault in Afghanistan said Sunday that the military campaign is on schedule and making \great progress"" toward the goal of destroying the al Qaeda terrorist network and the Taliban regime that harbors it.
Appearing on separate television interview programs, Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Army Gen. Tommy Franks, who heads the U.S. Central Command, gave positive assessments of a war effort that some critics have characterized in recent days as being bogged down.
But both generals also warned that the United States and its anti-Taliban rebel allies face a long and difficult task. Neither suggested the United States is close to locating Osama bin Laden, the Saudi exile and suspected mastermind behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks against the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon.
Myers and Franks denied a report in The New Yorker that a raid last month on a Taliban stronghold by members of the top-secret Delta Force encountered stiff resistance and that 12 U.S. soldiers were injured. They said there were some injuries during the operation, but that none resulted from enemy fire.
