U.S. moves in ground troops
Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, October 30, 2001
Los Angeles Times and associated press
WASHINGTON – The United States has deployed a small number of ground troops in Afghanistan as part of a stepped-up effort to help opposition forces seeking to overthrow the Taliban regime, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld confirmed Tuesday.
In his first detailed comments on the issue, Rumsfeld said the Pentagon has sent fewer than 100 U.S. troops into Afghanistan to help find targets for airstrikes and to coordinate deliveries of food, ammunition and other supplies to the opposition forces.
Meanwhile, an American bomb blasted huge plumes of smoke 1,000 feet into the skies over Afghanistan’s front lines near Bagram on Tuesday in an unusually mighty airstrike. U.S. jets also pounded Taliban positions in the Balkh region around Mazar-e-Sharif.
The opposition deployed hundreds of crack troops near Taliban lines north of Kabul, the first tangible sign of preparations for an assault on the capital.
Early today, U.S. fighter planes dropped three large bombs on camps used by fighters of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida terrorist organization in Sapora region near the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, according to the South Asian Dispatch Agency.
Fighters responded with antiaircraft fire. There was no immediate word of casualties.
Rumsfeld also suggested that the United States is increasingly throwing its weight behind the slow-moving ground campaign of the opposition Northern Alliance. He said “considerably more than 50 percent” of the U.S. air sorties are now devoted to helping the anti-Taliban forces, adding that on Tuesday, 80 percent of the bombing raids served that purpose.
Rumsfeld’s comments at a Pentagon briefing provided the latest insight into the choices the administration is making in its war against the Taliban and its al-Qaida allies.
By sending out military advisers – known as “liaison officers” – the administration has also deepened its involvement with the anti-Taliban groups, most notably the Northern Alliance. Although the United States considers the Northern Alliance a key ally, the administration also has sought to avoid appearing too closely aligned with the group for fear of offending other Afghan groups and Pakistan – a key supporter of the anti-terrorism campaign but an opponent of any advance on the Afghan capital, Kabul, by the alliance.
In another sign Tuesday of the importance of the relationship with regional supporters of the U.S. effort, Army Gen. Tommy Franks, the U.S. military commander for the Middle East region, visited Uzbekistan, which borders Afghanistan, to hold talks with Northern Alliance officials.
While Rumsfeld did not specify what kind of military personnel might be on the ground, from the description of their role, they likely include Army Green Berets. Some nonmilitary government personnel are also taking part in this mission, defense officials said.
Rumsfeld said the presence of the U.S. personnel has already improved the quality of the bomb targeting by providing “the kind of very specific information that is very helpful to the war effort.”
