Britons Near an Afghan Goal

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan — British Royal Marines scouring mountains in eastern Afghanistan for vanished Islamic militants have covered 80% to 85% of the ground they were told to sweep, a spokesman said Sunday.

Marine Lt. Col. Ben Curry said the commander of 45 commandos leading the 1,000-strong manhunt and intelligence-gathering mission estimated that he had walked 125 miles since Operation Snipe began 15 days ago.

“Of the area that we’ve been given, we’ve covered between 80% and 85%,” Curry told reporters at Bagram air base, north of Kabul, the capital.

The commandos have not had any enemy contact since they began their mission but have instead been offered tea and bread by local villagers in the soaring mountains of Paktika province.

Military officials say the Taliban regime, ousted from power in December after a United States-led offensive, and Al Qaeda, the militant Islamic group blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks, have dispersed or slipped across the Pakistani border.

Curry said that once the Marines had covered the whole of their target area they would return to base.