|
Largest Afghanistan Battle in Months
U.S. and coalition forces were battling 80 rebels aligned to renegade leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar on Tuesday in the largest-scale fighting since Operation Anaconda nine months ago, the U.S. military said. At least 18 rebel fighters were killed in the fighting, which began Monday, the military said. There were no coalition casualties. Yep. That sounds like Hek's boys... "It's the largest concentration of enemy forces since Operation Anaconda," U.S. military spokesman Roger King said from Bagram Air Base. Another Bagram spokesman, Maj. Robert Hepner, said 200 U.S. Special Forces troops were engaged in the mountain battle and that the number of ground forces was likely to rise. "More soldiers are on their way," he said. Implying what they've uncovered is more than just a handful... American war planes were bombarding enemy positions, including some entrenched in deep caves, with B-1 bombers, F-16s and AC-130 gunships, King said. "We've had reports of various numbers of armed men, groups of people trying to gather in order to carry out attacks on the coalition," King said. "We've been actively engaged in trying to develop intelligence that would lead us to a precise location and yesterday (Monday) we did." That's called a "bingo!" in the trade... The fighting in mountains in southeastern Afghanistan -- about 15 miles north of Spin Boldak and near the border with Pakistan -- was triggered by a small shootout nearby between U.S. Special Forces and armed attackers as the Americans and their Afghan government allies were working to clear a compound. One of the attackers was killed, one injured and one detained, King said. He said the detained suspect said under questioning that a large group of armed men had massed in the mountain area. "We'd like to ask you some questions, sonny..." "I'll never talk, infidel!" "Mahmoud, break his left knee." "Ow! I'll talk! I'll talk!" "Mahmoud, break his right knee." "Ow! Ow! I'll tell the truth! I'll tell the truth!" King said the military sent Apache helicopters to investigate, and they came under small arms fire. He said 82nd Airborne Division forces responded with a quick-reaction contingent of fighter aircraft that are continuing to pound the remote region with 500-pound and 2,000-pound bombs. Hmmm... First rule of guerrilla warfare: When they send armed aircraft over to investigate, pretend you're not there... "Our intelligence leads us to believe that they are most closely aligned with the Hezb-e-Islami movement, which is Hekmatyar's military arm," King said. "We've had reports over several months that he's been attempting to consolidate with remnants of Al Qaeda and Taliban." Bad thing for Hek. First he gets kicked out of his own party, then his military force, such as it is, gets clobbered. Doesn't look like he's going to provide much help to the Ummah in resisting any attack on Iraq, so he won't be an Islamic hero. He'll remain a has-been... Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2003-01-28 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=9643 |