U.S. troops move closer

Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, October 10, 2001

By Alan Sipress

The Washington Post

Pakistan has significantly deepened its involvement in the U.S.-led air campaign in neighboring Afghanistan by allowing American forces to begin using a pair of airfields, and a senior Pakistani military official said Wednesday hundreds of U.S. troops have already moved in.

As U.S. warplanes increasingly turned their fury on the Taliban leadership, American and Pakistani defense officials said President Pervez Musharraf gave permission for U.S. forces to begin operating from a commercial airport in Baluchistan province and a small military airfield in Sindh province.

These forces, the first American troops in Pakistan, will bolster an air campaign that Wednesday waged the most concentrated attack so far on the Afghan capital of Kabul.

In the fourth day of airstrikes, American aircraft also pounded the seat of Taliban leadership in Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, in particular targeting underground bunkers that U.S. commanders hoped to demolish with 5,000-pound laser-guided bombs first used in the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

"You use it when you want the earth to shake, when you want to have a real effect," a defense official said. The air assault also targeted troop garrisons and troop concentrations near Kabul and Kandahar. Military vehicles and maintenance shops were also attacked.

A Defense Department official also said the first American death during the military campaign occurred Tuesday when a serviceman in Qatar, home to a base used by the U.S. Air Force, was killed in a forklift accident.

During the last month, the United States has pressed Pakistan to sever its longstanding ties with the Taliban militia, which rules most of Afghanistan, and provide support for a military campaign, for instance, by offering intelligence and overflight rights. The Pakistani government, however, has resisted becoming too closely intertwined in the military operations, fearing a backlash among influential officers in the security forces and Taliban sympathizers in the public.

But Pakistani officials acknowledged Wednesday they had crossed a threshold by allowing the United States to use the air bases. More than 200 Americans had already arrived at each of the airfields, according to the senior Pakistani official.

Officials in Pakistan said U.S. troops at the two bases would be involved in providing emergency support and rescue capabilities for other forces inside Afghanistan, though an American Defense Department official signaled that much more extensive operations were envisioned for these forces.

"We have been told that the airport would be used as a standby facility for a ground action by the U.S. special forces," said a senior Pakistani official.

The heavy bombs used over the last two days against deeply buried Taliban leadership targets were dropped by B-2 bombers flying from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. At the base, Brig. Gen. Tony Przybyslawski, commander of the 509th Bomb Wing, told reporters that six B-2s flew to their targets, then continued to the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia, where fresh crews took over for the return flights to Whiteman. The 44-hour combat missions were the longest in history, he said.

The Pentagon also reported that U.S. planes on Tuesday struck a troop garrison outside the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif for the second time since the campaign started.

Even with the increased focus on troop concentrations, the U.S. offensive has avoided the total assault on Taliban forces and troops from bin Laden’s al-Qaida network that the opposition Northern Alliance has sought. The rebel coalition is seeking the strikes to clear the way for a military victory against the Taliban.

Bush administration officials said they remain wary of handing a military advantage to just one group in Afghanistan’s fractious political mix. "For us to be perceived as supporting only the Northern Alliance wouldn’t be smart," a defense official said. "Throwing our weight too obviously and overtly in favor of the alliance might achieve a near-term goal, but in the long term it could lead to more instability in Afghanistan."