Chris
03-06-2002, 05:04 AM
GARDEZ/BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Hundreds of U.S. troop reinforcements, loaded with equipment to attack caves, were airlifted into mountain battlefields in east Afghanistan Wednesday prepared for a dangerous lengthy hunt for diehard al Qaeda and Taliban rebels.
In his first remarks on the progress of the biggest U.S. led attack of the five-month-old Afghan War, interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai said the offensive was succeeding despite the heaviest American casualties of the conflict . Asked by Reuters on the fifth day of the air and ground campaign how the offensive, code-named "Operation Anaconda" was going, he said: "Successful, successful."
They were his only comments after meeting Afghan Defense Minister Mohammad Fahim and other military officials in Kabul for an update on the fighting.
A U.S. military official said Wednesday U.S.-led forces had killed half the Taliban and al Qaeda fighters holed up in snow-capped mountains near the heavily fortified town of Gardez, capital of Paktia province, in attacks that began last week.
"We've killed up to 500 or more," said Lieutenant-Colonel Walter Piatt at Bagram airbase outside Kabul which was becoming the main location for U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
"Initially, we thought it was only about a couple of hundred but now we think it's about half (of the total enemy force)." Piatt said it was unclear whether Taliban-Qaeda fighters had reinforced their positions about 20 miles from Gardez and 95 miles south of Kabul near the Pakistan border.
"We're watching that very closely. These mountain ranges are very high ... right now it's hard to tell."
Eight U.S. troops and seven Afghan soldiers have died in the operation and about 40 U.S. and 30 Afghan troops have been wounded.
U.S. military officers in the battlefield spoke of stiffer resistance than expected.
"I don't think we knew what we were getting into this time, but I think we're beginning to adjust," said Sergeant Major Mark Nielsen, 48, from Indianapolis, in a media pool report.
Afghan soldiers returning to Gardez from the front line said the rebels were making hit-and-run attacks on the combined U.S.-Afghan force of 1,500 besieging their caves and bunkers.
"They are fighting a guerrilla war," Mohammad Yunis told Reuters. "They have divided into groups of four or five. They jump out of a cave, open fire on us and then dart back into the cave or move to another one. They know the area very well."
PISTOL FIRE
The rebels were firing rockets of their own, mortar bombs and heavy machineguns. But the soldiers said the Taliban appeared to be running short of ammunition and the alliance forces were closer to the hideouts, sometimes as near as 100 meters.
"We are getting so close to them now that sometimes we are just shooting with pistols," another Afghan soldier said.
Reuters correspondents in Gardez said they could see little U.S. bombing of the area now indicating aerial attacks were being held back to allow ground troops into the area.
The region's governor warned it could take weeks before the al Qaeda and Taliban forces were wiped out.
Paktia Province governor Taj Mohammed Wardak said: "The encirclement of the rebels is getting more suffocating.
"I am certain the whole game will be over in a few weeks."
Overnight, U.S. Chinook helicopters took off from Bagram, a Soviet-built complex about 50 km (30 miles) north of Kabul.
Some troops carried shoulder-launched rockets crucial to blasting forces out of snow-covered cave entrances. They planned not only to attack occupied caves but also entrances to others so they could not be used.
They also were equipped with night-vision equipment and dressed in winter uniforms against sub-zero temperatures.
There are thousands of caves in the area and bunkers built to defend the area against Soviet forces in the 1980's.
The United States launched strikes on Afghanistan in October to flush out Osama bin Laden, prime suspect in the September 11 attacks on the United States, and punish his Taliban protectors.
Afghan officials believe neither Saudi-born al Qaeda leader bin Laden nor Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar are in the battle area.
U.S. Major Bryan Hilferty told Reuters at Bagram there had been a major movement of troops from the present main U.S. base near the southern city of Kandahar to Bagram, and said there were around 1,000 U.S. troops actively involved in the battle.
U.S. defense officials told Reuters U.S. forces this week moved Marine Corps AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters into Afghanistan along with Army AH-64 Apaches, already used in the operation.
The resurgence of fighting followed a lull of several weeks in which some Washington politicians questioned the U.S. campaign's success.
Fears have been raised that the country will fall back into the warlordism and anarchy that reigned before the rise of the ousted Taliban. The interim government is trying to keep local warlords under control and prevent factional squabbles.
Afghan Defense Minister Mohammad Fahim Wednesday ended a two-day meeting with warlords from all over the country whom he summoned to Kabul to discuss the security situation.
With competing warlords threatening the peace, the United States and its allies are considering doubling the number of foreign peacekeepers, perhaps under U.S. command, diplomats at the United Nations said.
So far the international security force in Afghanistan has been confined to Kabul and its environs, with 4,500 troops, despite pleas from Karzai, head of the U.N.-backed interim government, to expand the force to other cities.
Meanwhile international peacekeepers in Afghanistan said on Wednesday they had received credible intelligence reports about plans to kidnap a foreign journalist in retaliation for the Gardez attack.
Monday, a woman journalist working for Canada's Toronto Star newspaper was seriously wounded when a hand grenade was thrown at her car while covering the fighting near Gardez.
"There is a serious threat about the kidnap of a journalist in retaliation for the operation in Gardez," said Captain Graham Dunlop, a spokesman for the multinational International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
"We urge journalists everywhere in Afghanistan to maintain extra vigilance and consider their movements."
Eight journalists, including two from Reuters, have been killed covering the war in Afghanistan since U.S. air strikes began last October.
Chris.
In his first remarks on the progress of the biggest U.S. led attack of the five-month-old Afghan War, interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai said the offensive was succeeding despite the heaviest American casualties of the conflict . Asked by Reuters on the fifth day of the air and ground campaign how the offensive, code-named "Operation Anaconda" was going, he said: "Successful, successful."
They were his only comments after meeting Afghan Defense Minister Mohammad Fahim and other military officials in Kabul for an update on the fighting.
A U.S. military official said Wednesday U.S.-led forces had killed half the Taliban and al Qaeda fighters holed up in snow-capped mountains near the heavily fortified town of Gardez, capital of Paktia province, in attacks that began last week.
"We've killed up to 500 or more," said Lieutenant-Colonel Walter Piatt at Bagram airbase outside Kabul which was becoming the main location for U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
"Initially, we thought it was only about a couple of hundred but now we think it's about half (of the total enemy force)." Piatt said it was unclear whether Taliban-Qaeda fighters had reinforced their positions about 20 miles from Gardez and 95 miles south of Kabul near the Pakistan border.
"We're watching that very closely. These mountain ranges are very high ... right now it's hard to tell."
Eight U.S. troops and seven Afghan soldiers have died in the operation and about 40 U.S. and 30 Afghan troops have been wounded.
U.S. military officers in the battlefield spoke of stiffer resistance than expected.
"I don't think we knew what we were getting into this time, but I think we're beginning to adjust," said Sergeant Major Mark Nielsen, 48, from Indianapolis, in a media pool report.
Afghan soldiers returning to Gardez from the front line said the rebels were making hit-and-run attacks on the combined U.S.-Afghan force of 1,500 besieging their caves and bunkers.
"They are fighting a guerrilla war," Mohammad Yunis told Reuters. "They have divided into groups of four or five. They jump out of a cave, open fire on us and then dart back into the cave or move to another one. They know the area very well."
PISTOL FIRE
The rebels were firing rockets of their own, mortar bombs and heavy machineguns. But the soldiers said the Taliban appeared to be running short of ammunition and the alliance forces were closer to the hideouts, sometimes as near as 100 meters.
"We are getting so close to them now that sometimes we are just shooting with pistols," another Afghan soldier said.
Reuters correspondents in Gardez said they could see little U.S. bombing of the area now indicating aerial attacks were being held back to allow ground troops into the area.
The region's governor warned it could take weeks before the al Qaeda and Taliban forces were wiped out.
Paktia Province governor Taj Mohammed Wardak said: "The encirclement of the rebels is getting more suffocating.
"I am certain the whole game will be over in a few weeks."
Overnight, U.S. Chinook helicopters took off from Bagram, a Soviet-built complex about 50 km (30 miles) north of Kabul.
Some troops carried shoulder-launched rockets crucial to blasting forces out of snow-covered cave entrances. They planned not only to attack occupied caves but also entrances to others so they could not be used.
They also were equipped with night-vision equipment and dressed in winter uniforms against sub-zero temperatures.
There are thousands of caves in the area and bunkers built to defend the area against Soviet forces in the 1980's.
The United States launched strikes on Afghanistan in October to flush out Osama bin Laden, prime suspect in the September 11 attacks on the United States, and punish his Taliban protectors.
Afghan officials believe neither Saudi-born al Qaeda leader bin Laden nor Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar are in the battle area.
U.S. Major Bryan Hilferty told Reuters at Bagram there had been a major movement of troops from the present main U.S. base near the southern city of Kandahar to Bagram, and said there were around 1,000 U.S. troops actively involved in the battle.
U.S. defense officials told Reuters U.S. forces this week moved Marine Corps AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters into Afghanistan along with Army AH-64 Apaches, already used in the operation.
The resurgence of fighting followed a lull of several weeks in which some Washington politicians questioned the U.S. campaign's success.
Fears have been raised that the country will fall back into the warlordism and anarchy that reigned before the rise of the ousted Taliban. The interim government is trying to keep local warlords under control and prevent factional squabbles.
Afghan Defense Minister Mohammad Fahim Wednesday ended a two-day meeting with warlords from all over the country whom he summoned to Kabul to discuss the security situation.
With competing warlords threatening the peace, the United States and its allies are considering doubling the number of foreign peacekeepers, perhaps under U.S. command, diplomats at the United Nations said.
So far the international security force in Afghanistan has been confined to Kabul and its environs, with 4,500 troops, despite pleas from Karzai, head of the U.N.-backed interim government, to expand the force to other cities.
Meanwhile international peacekeepers in Afghanistan said on Wednesday they had received credible intelligence reports about plans to kidnap a foreign journalist in retaliation for the Gardez attack.
Monday, a woman journalist working for Canada's Toronto Star newspaper was seriously wounded when a hand grenade was thrown at her car while covering the fighting near Gardez.
"There is a serious threat about the kidnap of a journalist in retaliation for the operation in Gardez," said Captain Graham Dunlop, a spokesman for the multinational International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
"We urge journalists everywhere in Afghanistan to maintain extra vigilance and consider their movements."
Eight journalists, including two from Reuters, have been killed covering the war in Afghanistan since U.S. air strikes began last October.
Chris.