[iwar] [fc:Secrets.Of.Brigade.055]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2001-10-29 07:18:23

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From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
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Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2001 07:18:23 -0800 (PST)
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Subject: [iwar] [fc:Secrets.Of.Brigade.055]
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Time
November 5, 2001
Secrets Of Brigade 055
Taliban special forces
By Daniel Eisenberg
To understand why the Taliban is so tenacious, consider this: some of its
frontline troops are the same sort of men who steered planes into buildings
on Sept. 11. The key to the regime's resistance is a shadowy band of Arab
holy warriors trained by Osama bin Laden--a fundamentalist foreign legion
known as Brigade 055.
While hundreds of inexperienced Pakistani, Sudanese and other Muslim
faithful enter Afghanistan every week to join the Taliban army, the
estimated 1,000 Arabs of Brigade 055 have been in the country for years.
Trained in bin Laden's terror camps, they are the Taliban's most dedicated
and highly skilled soldiers--the elite of the roughly 5,000 al-Qaeda
fighters on the ground.
About 100 of the very best serve as bin Laden's personal security detail.
Most are veterans of battles against regimes in their homelands or the
mujahedin war against the Soviets in Afghanistan. Primarily led by Egyptian
and Saudi revolutionaries, Brigade 055 (the unit began as a Soviet-era
Afghan-government outfit) also includes volunteers from Chechnya, Pakistan,
Bosnia, China and Uzbekistan.
Like most al-Qaeda terrorists, brigade members are fervently committed to
bin Laden's cause, and will literally fight to the death. "They give no
quarter, and they expect no quarter," says an official at the Pentagon's
Defense Intelligence Agency. At the moment, they're helping out at key
strategic northern cities like Mazar-i-Sharif, Taloqan and Jalalabad --and,
not surprisingly, becoming a major target of U.S. firepower.
Despite the name, the 55th isn't a brigade in the traditional sense. Rather
than deploying as one unit backed up by a range of artillery, members fan
out in small groups to help reinforce their Afghan brothers, often taking
the forward positions. By threat or persuasion, the 55th tries to instill
its sense of fearlessness, and discipline, in the Afghan rank-and-file--and
goes so far as to shoot those daring to retreat. Even among all the
notorious players in Afghanistan, the brigade enjoys a particularly brutal
reputation for butchering opposition forces. And if the U.S. enters a ground
war, the 55th is sure to draw blood.
Reported by Mark Thompson/Washington and Hannah Bloch/Islamabad 

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