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U.S. Aircraft Force Taliban To Abandon Afgan Hideout
Heavy pounding by U.S. fighter aircraft drove Pakistani Taliban holdouts from their mountain hideout, where cleanup crews today found a transit camp and a staging ground for hit-and-run assaults by the hard-line religious militia group and its allies. "We discovered a base with tents, food, weapons. It was here that Pakistanis Taliban coming from Pakistan would stay before moving out to other parts of the country," said Fazluddin Agha, district police chief of Spin Boldak.
| Naturally, they're coming from Pakistan. I've come to the conclusion that there isn't a domestic anti-Karzai movement of any import or real capability. |
U.S. air support launched from Bagram air base pounded the Tor Ghar mountain range, where about 60 Pakistanis Taliban fighters were dug in after fleeing a border village during fighting a day earlier. Col. Roger King, an Army spokesman, said that more than 35,000 pounds of ordnance was dropped or fired on the Pakistani rebel positions over a 14-hour span. "It's a pretty good use of close air support," King told reporters at Bagram air base, located north of Kabul. About 45 Special Forces soldiers and 250 Afghan soldiers drove the Pakistanis Taliban into the mountains from the village of Sikai Lashki, 25 miles north of Spin Boldak, the gateway to southeastern Afghanistan. Several Afghan fighters were injured, as were their Pakistani Taliban enemies, according to Agha.
| I think it's a great thing that the Afghan troops are picking up more of the load for fighting off the invaders. Damned good sign. |
Evidence is mounting in the southern regions of Afghanistan that the Pakistanis are Taliban is reorganizing and has found an ally in the ISI Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. "Six months ago their attacks were sporadic. But today there is a new organization to the Pakistanis Taliban," Kandahar's 2nd Corps commander, Khan Mohammed, said at the sprawling compound where Taliban supreme leader Mohammed Omar once lived.
Hek is most likely across the border. This is going to keep going on as long as they have a safe haven in Pakland.
Posted by: Steve 2003-04-04 |
