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| Terror Networks |
| Battered Nepalese troops await new attack |
| 2002-05-11 |
| After a fierce fight with drum-beating, screaming guerrillas, Nepal's army withdrew from two of its five positions in a western rebel stronghold on Saturday and reinforced its largest garrison for an expected second attack. "This is a strategic withdrawal," a senior general told journalists. For the first time, reporters were allowed into the war zone where this week the army fought its deadliest battle in the six-year insurgency. I hate "strategic withdrawals." So often they turn into "routs." The Defense Ministry said Friday that 76 soldiers and police officers and 275 rebels had been killed in a week of fighting that ended Thursday in Gam, a mountainside village 180 miles west of Katmandu, the capital. State radio reported 250 rebels and more than 100 security forces had been killed. The numbers seem a little wobbly, but it still translates into a pretty big fight. Decisive? Not yet... There were burned huts, scattered helmets, shoes and bullets where soldiers and police had been overwhelmed Tuesday night by waves of guerrillas. The attackers beat drums, screamed taunts and exploded crude bombs as they advanced, according to survivors. In night raids, the survivors said, what seemed like thousands of guerrillas advanced with torches to give the appearance of added strength. We can guess where they got their training and military philosophy. The Chinese have this liking for human waves attacks. They're awful tactics, unless you've got people to throw away, in which case the enemy is overwhelmed by sheer numbers. China's got lots of people, but Nepal doesn't... The army officers and a Western defense attache who visited Gam on Saturday said documents recovered from some of the hastily buried bodies of guerrillas indicate another big attack is being planned. The documents also indicated that the rebels are growing desperate. They have taken at least 1,500 casualties among their 5,000-6,000 hardcore fighters in the past few months, the general said. Those are pretty heavy casualties. The press uses the term "decimate" to describe casualties like that, but "decimation" is only killing one in ten. This is more like one in four. That's a lot of missing faces in the chow line. A letter that the army said was found in the pocket of one of the dead rebels was addressed to a "Commander Sanjay" from a "Comrade Sonam." "We are running out of cash. We want 2.5 million rupees ($32,500)," the letter said. "We are getting by on one meal per day. The men are getting desperate." The Western defense attache said this and other documents show that "things aren't going the way they want. They have lost command and control and discipline." With one in four casualties that's to be expected. You can't be a commissar with an office and a staff and two or three mistresses when you're dead. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |