[iwar] [fc:US.special.forces.kill.20.in.fierce.Afghan.firefight]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2001-10-22 07:01:54
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From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
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Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2001 07:01:54 -0700 (PDT)
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US special forces kill 20 in fierce Afghan firefight 

Jason Burke, Peshawar, Ed Vulliamy, New York and Kamal Ahmed, London
Sunday October 21, 2001
The Observer 

American special forces were yesterday involved in pitched battles
inside Afghanistan after being parachuted into an area where Osama bin
Laden, the prime suspect in the 11 September terrorist attacks, has been
a frequent visitor.  More than 100 US commandos and light infantry
Rangers fought with Taliban forces near the regime's spiritual
stronghold of Kandahar, the Taliban's spiritual centre - where bin Laden
has been a frequent visitor - and a military airport 60 miles to the
southeast.  Some 20 Taliban soldiers were reportedly killed.  US
helicopters were seen over Kandahar again last night, apparently
confirming reports of further attacks. 


The forces siezed intelligence from a complex which serves as one of the
Taliban command and control compounds which they hope will reveal clues
to the whereabouts of the Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar and bin
Laden.  After a savage 30-minute firefight, US troops also cleared the
airstrip building by building. 

'We have accomplished our objective at the airfield,' said General
Richard Myers, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, last night.  'We did
not expect to find significant Taliban leadership at these locations,'
he said.  'We, of course, were hoping we would, but we did not expect
it, and we did not find senior Taliban of Al-Qaeda leadership.'

Other operations involving ground troops were imminent, he added.  'We
are going to have ongoing operations around the world.'

The general revealed that the US commandos came across stores of rocket
propelled grenades, machine guns and ammunition and destroyed them. 

In Britain, Ministry of Defence sources said detachments of British
Royal Marines could shortly be sent to the region.  In the event of a
long ground war, Gurkha regiments could also be called upon because of
their experience of mountain terrain.  It is understood that at least
one SAS unit is already operating inside Afghanistan, but with orders to
unite the rebel troops and attempt to encourage Taliban defections,
rather than take part in direct action. 

And in the clearest signal yet that a ground offensive was imminent,
Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, said: 'we have looked at a number of
different options.  Some of those certainly involve putting boots on the
ground in Afghanistan in a number of different ways to achieve our
ultimate objective of bringing Osama bin Laden to justice and his
associates to account.'

In an unprecedented wartime public relations act, the Pentagon released
grainy film taken by its own camera operators, including dramatic clips
of night parachute drops showing troops jumping on to the airfield from
an MC 130E Combat Talon and destroying equipment. 

The special forces were taken out by helicoptor at dawn after hours
inside Taliban territory.  The battle against Taliban militia in
Kandahar began after troops boarded aircraft at the remote Pakistani
airstrip of Dalbandin, 37 miles from the Afghan frontier. 

US troops began arriving at the base, the third now being used in
Pakistan by the Americans, on Thursday, military sources said.  They are
believed to have acted with special forces troops aboard the USS Kitty
Hawk positioned in the Arabian Gulf. 

Locals reported that helicopters began taking off from Dalbandin at
10.30pm on Friday and air activity continued until 6am yesterday. 

Army Rangers parachuted on to the airport were loaded armed transport
planes in nearby Oman. 

Two American military personnel were killed and five others were injured
when a Black Hawk helicopter involved in support operations in Pakistan
crashed at an airbase.  Taliban claims that they had hit it were
dismissed by the US.  Two Rangers were hurt parachuting onto the
airfield. 

'These soldiers will not have died in vain,' President George W.  Bush
said last night.  'This is a just cause.  The American people now fully
understand that we are in an important struggle, a struggle that will
take time, and that there will be moments of sacrifice.'

The American raids appear to have been a double-headed attack aimed at
killing or capturing both Mullah Omar, the reclusive cleric who leads
the Taliban, and bin Laden. 


Sources said five helicopters landed at the small village of Baba Sahib,
in Arghandab district five miles north-west of Kandahar, the city which
is the spiritual home of the Taliban. 

Omar has recently built a house in the village, which has already been
the target of sustained air attacks.  Afghan military sources said that
he was not in the area at the time of the attack.  Myers said the
Taliban leader had lived in the command and control building the
commandos raided. 

The raids signalled a new phase of the US-led coalition's war on
terrorism, after 13 days of strikes from the air alone.  Military
sources in America and Britain said the lightning 'hit and run' raids
would be the first of many and that British troops were now on standby
to support further incursions. 

The Pentagon said American troops had been in the country for a few
hours and had all returned to bases in Pakistan. 

The escalation has provoked a renewed exodus of refugees and sparked a
new offensive by the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, which launched an
attack on positions north of Karbul. 

The attacks also increased tension in the whole region, with Pakistan
struggling to contain protests.  Yesterday afternoon a bomb was
discovered in the departure lounge of Islamabad airport.  It was
detonated in a controlled explosion.  There were no injuries.  There
were also reports of a new anthrax outbreak at the House of
Representatives in Washington. 

Bombing raids by American planes continued throughout the day yesterday
with planes hitting Kabul, Kandahar and Herat.  More than 30 aircraft
were launched from the carrier USS Carl Vinson. 

In the streets of Karbul, tanks and troops were seen moving and sporadic
bursts of gunfire were heard as troops apparently fired with small arms
on planes flying low overhead. 

Witnesses reported that resistance was almost non-existent, with little
anti-aircraft fire.  The Islamic militia said that 900 civilians have
been killed in the strikes so far, though there is no confirmation of
the figure. 

The Taliban remained defiant last night, saying that they had
successfully repulsed the US raid and that they might as well give up
their Muslim faith as give up the world's most wanted man. 

------------------
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