topic by
John Calvin
5/1/2002 (14:05) |
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Wed 1 May 2002
Al-Qaeda fighters give crack US troops the slip
CHRIS STEPHEN
IN BAGRAM
AL-QAEDA terrorists in Afghanistan have again given coalition forces the slip after a surveillance operation went wrong in the southern mountains, it was revealed yesterday.
Following the failure to trap al-Qaeda units in fighting at the Tora Bora caves in December, and again during Operation Anaconda in March, the coalition had hoped to pin down the terrorists at a base near the mountain town of Khost.
A special forces team was dropped last week near the base and took up positions watching the al-Qaeda units, who lived in a complex of caves and seven abandoned farm buildings.
The base is in a sensitive area -just a mile from the Pakistan border, a sign that the terrorists have become adept at criss-crossing the border to escape detection.
Then early on Monday morning, the special forces team was spotted. After a brief firefight, in which two al-Qaeda were shot and presumed dead, the commandos pulled back, calling for reinforcements.
It took two hours to scramble a Quick Reaction Force, made up of 200 US paratroopers from the 101 Airborne division. By the time the troops could be helicoptered into the area, the terrorists had vanished.
A search lasting into the evening turned up mortars, machine guns and more than 100 boxes of ammunition.
Special forces units remained in the area all night, killing two more al-Qaeda fighters in the early hours of the morning who had apparently tried to return to the cave complex.
But the rest of the force, thought to be several dozen, had vanished. 'We killed two yesterday and last night in the same area we killed another two,' said the coalition ground forces’ commander, Major General Franklin Hagenbeck, speaking at his Bagram headquarters. 'After the first incident we knew how they would react when the sun went down, so we were ready for that.'
The base was built among caves and abandoned farm buildings high in the mountains, less than a mile from the Pakistani border.
Major Bryan Hilferty, a United States coalition spokesman, defended the gap between the call for help and the dispatch of a reaction force.
'It wasn’t that long of a delay, a couple of hours at most. We’re not perfect. We would like to be. It’s impossible to seal a country the size of Texas.'
However, operating with those kind of delays - and with no sign of the massed air power now on station in Afghanistan - it is difficult to see how future brushes with the al-Qaeda forces can be any more successful.
The terrorists are believed to be concentrated along a strip of towering mountains 200 miles long, on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
Special forces are operating on both sides of this line, but while they have proved adept at finding al-Qaeda and Taleban units, the process of destruction depends on fast reinforcement to seal all escape routes.
A formidable armoury has now been arrayed in Afghanistan. A fleet of armed Chinook helicopters can transport an entire battalion of troops in a matter of hours.
The 1,700-strong British force led by 45 Commando is now up to strength and ready for operation, along with coalition units from Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany and New Zealand. The US has also deployed extra Apache strike helicopters as well as A-10 ground attack aircraft.
But even as the military situation hardens, so the political situation is becoming more unstable. Al-Qaeda units have now cheekily established a printing press near Khost, distributing leaflets in nearby villages proclaiming an imminent offensive by fundamentalist guerrillas.
Afghan warlords in the heart of the al-Qaeda zone have turned on each other, with dozens of rockets used in a fierce battle for control of the town of Gardez over the weekend that left 25 dead.
British and US commanders have watched this fighting with dismay - they had been hoping these warlords would use their forces to support the coalition.
Gen Hagenbeck acknowledged that his forces are unlikely to bring al-Qaeda to battle in one big engagement.
'I think they’re dispersed, they’ve gone to a variety of locations, they are an adaptable enemy. I think they’ve learned not to mass their forces,' he said.
But he remains positive about destroying the renegades. 'I can assure you we have eyes on them wherever they are. They know we are out looking about, and we have lots of assets out there.'
The Scotsman
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