Herald news services
WASHINGTON — About 100 elite U.S. commandos carried out a secretive ground assault in the Taliban stronghold of southern Afghanistan today, opening a new phase of the war on terrorism after nearly two weeks of punishing airstrikes, U.S. officials said. Two soldiers died when a U.S. helicopter, prepared for search-and-rescue duty, crashed in neighboring Pakistan.
President Bush said American forces are "encircling the terrorists so that we can bring them to justice."
"The important thing for me to tell the American people is these soldiers will not have died in vain," said Bush, assuring their loved ones that "the soldiers died in a cause that is just and right and that we will prevail."
Afghanistan’s Taliban regime, meanwhile, welcomed word of the first U.S. special forces troops deploying in its territory, challenging Washington to launch an all-out ground campaign.
"If they want to send in soldiers, they should send in 100,000. Then it can be a fight between our soldiers and theirs," Taliban embassy spokesman Sohail Shaheen said in Islamabad, the capital of neighboring Pakistan.
Officials said the commandos returned to base after several hours inside Afghanistan. There was no word on possible casualties in the raid.
Friday, officials had confirmed that special forces were in northern and southern Afghanistan, searching for Taliban targets to strike and searching for Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida lieutenants.
The use of U.S. troops near Kandahar, which in effect is the Taliban headquarters, marked a shift to a broader range of military activities — overt and covert — that President Bush says is necessary to win the war.
A Pakistan military official said Friday that American officials informed his government that U.S. special forces will be conducting "hit-and-run" operations in Taliban-ruled areas of Afghanistan in an effort to flush out bin Laden, members of his al-Qaida network and Taliban leaders.
An unspecified number of U.S. special forces were dropped into southern Afghanistan Thursday, the official said. He said Pakistan was told U.S. forces have been in northern Afghanistan for more than one week.
In preparation for ground action, the USS Kitty Hawk, an aircraft carrier in the Indian Ocean, was loaded with special forces last weekend.
And an Air Force special operations AC-130 gunships began attacking in southern Afghanistan. The high-firepower AC-130s typically give close air cover to forces on the ground or going in for small-unit operations.
Separately, U.S. officials said the air assaults that began Oct. 7 and continued Friday will intensify soon and focus more directly on front-line troops of the ruling Taliban.
Airstrikes resumed early today in Kabul, with at least eight explosions rattling the city from the northeast.
Gen. Rashid Dostum, an ethnic Uzbek warlord who is a northern alliance commander, said Friday his forces have been holding talks with several U.S. military personnel this week near the city of Mazar-e-Sharif, just south of the border with Uzbekistan, where U.S. forces are stationed.
Dostum said his discussions with the Americans centered on delivering humanitarian aid to Dara-e-Suf, an enclave of opposition resistance south of Mazar-e-Sharif.
The captain of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, meanwhile, said his pilots were ready to provide air cover for ground troops.
Navy EA-6B Prowler surveillance planes, F-14 Tomcat fighters and Marine Corps F/A-18C Hornet attack jets were catapulted off the Roosevelt’s decks early this morning, laden with air-to-ground missiles.
Capt. Rich O’Hanlon said the Taliban were sporadically firing antiaircraft artillery and the occasional shoulder-launched missile at U.S. aircraft, but he said for practical purposes the Taliban air defenses were "nonexistent."
O’Hanlon would not provide details about the Roosevelt battle group’s combat activities or possible future assignments, but he did say pilots were ready to provide air cover for ground forces, when it is needed.
The U.S. Marine Corps’ VMFA-251 "Thunderbolt" Squadron, normally stationed outside Charleston, S.C., is the first Marine unit confirmed participating in the campaign against the Taliban. While assigned to the Navy, Marine pilots have extra training in providing air cover for ground troops, O’Hanlon said.
A U.S. official in Washington said military action could increase markedly in coming days.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
