Afghan militants play cat-and-mouse with the U.S.

Militants in Afghan mountains are trying to play a cat-and-mouse-style game with the U.S. troops. According to the information coming from local authorities militants flee to Pakistan from mountains where U.S. suffered deadliest blow.

Militants in Afghan mountains where a Navy SEAL team was ambushed and a special forces helicopter shot down have fled into neighboring Pakistan and regrouped, a provincial governor said Thursday.

U.S. military spokesman Col. James Yonts said that while "some of the enemy may have been able to escape" into Pakistan, many rebels were still in the mountains and were surrounded by U.S. and Afghan forces.

Asadullah Wafa, the governor of Kunar province, where U.S. forces lost three Navy SEALs in an ambush and another 16 troops when their chopper was downed on June 28, said there had been little fighting in the area for several days, reports the AP.

"It's been peaceful because the militants escaped across the border to Pakistan and are now sheltering about 10 kilometers (six miles) on the other side," he told The Associated Press. "They may launch quick guerrilla raids across the border and then run back into Pakistan."

The governor declined to say how many militants are thought to be in the area.

The border snakes its way through mountains and parts of it are unguarded. Rebels favor the area largely because of the ease of slipping across the border unnoticed and because there are plenty of places to hide in the wooded, rugged terrain.

Violence continues gripping Afghanistan. U.S. and Afghan officials have warned that the violence is likely to worsen in the lead-up to legislative elections set for September. Taliban terrorists (although it was announced long ago that the movement had been destroyed) attacked a group of Afghan border guards last Saturday in the province of Gilmend, on the Afghan-Pakistani border. It seems that USA wastes time, money and energy on Iraq and Afghanistan.