Al-Qaeda militants are gradually returning to eastern Afghanistan and setting up bases for the first time in years, exploiting a withdrawal of US troops in the area, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

The trend has alarmed and discouraged US officials who had seen Al-Qaeda as a seriously weakened force in Afghanistan with only a couple of dozen fighters on the ground, the newspaper reported, citing unnamed US, Afghan and Taliban sources.

In September, the United States bombed an Al-Qaeda training camp in the Korengal valley, killing two senior Al-Qaeda figures, a Saudi and Kuwaiti, the NATO-led coalition told the Journal. One of Saudi Arabia's most wanted militants was also reportedly killed in the strike by US fighter jets.

The bombing raid illustrated the revival of Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan that has occurred over the past six to eight months, just as the US military has pulled troops back from remote eastern outposts that had been deemed strategically irrelevant.

Instead, US and coalition commanders have said they want to focus their troops on populated areas in the east while handing over security duties in more rural areas to Afghan forces.

US officers expected the Taliban to move out of the areas to fight the coalition elsewhere. But the militants have stayed put, a senior US military officer told the paper, and "al-Qaeda is coming back."

earlier related report
'Friendly fire' kills two in Afghanistan: NATO
Kabul (AFP) April 7, 2011 - Two international troops serving in Afghanistan have died in a friendly fire incident, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said Wednesday, adding that it has launched an investigation.

The statement did not identify the nationality of the troops, in line with policy, but said they were killed in the south of the war-torn country, the focal point of the fight against Taliban insurgents.

"Two International Security Assistance Force service members died following a friendly fire incident in southern Afghanistan today," the statement said.

"An ISAF joint command incident assessment team is looking into the incident. A formal investigation will determine the circumstances that led to the incident."

There are around 130,000 international troops serving in Afghanistan, around two-thirds of them from the United States. Limited withdrawals are due to start in July ahead of a planned transition to Afghan security control in 2014.

A total of 113 foreign troops have been killed in Afghanistan so far this year, according to the iCasualties.org website, compared to 711 for the whole of last year.