US and British special forces have conducted operations in Afghanistan and the Central Asian region, a senior White House official told CNN Friday.

The military operations, described as routinely done to scout out the situation when forces are deployed to a region, were conducted "in the region" and "in country," meaning Afghanistan, said the official, who asked not to be identified.

However, US Defense Department spokeswoman Victoria Clarke refused to comment on the US and British operations in Afghanistan. The Pentagon was not making any comment on operations, Clarke said.

USA Today reported Friday that elite US and British commandos arrived in Pakistan on September 13 -- two days after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, and began moving into Afghanistan with orders to capture or kill Saudi-born Islamic militant Osama bin Laden.

The United States has singled out bin Laden as the prime suspect in last week's hijacked airliner attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Defense Department building in Washington that left more than 6,000 people dead or missing.

USA Today quoted US and Pakistani officials as saying that teams of three to five US and British commandos backed by Black Hawk MH-60K helicopters have been searching for bin Laden in caves and bunkers in southwestern Afghanistan near Kandahar.

The paper said several elite military units were involved in the effort to find bin Laden, including the US Army's Green Berets, Navy's SEALS and the British Army's Special Air Services.

(Xinhua News Agency 09/29/2001)