Posted on 11/06/2001 6:20:42 AM PST by ARCADIA
·Delta Force caught in ferocious Taliban ambush
·Debacle prompted review of war tactics
The Pentagon's only publicly announced commando raid on Taliban positions, hailed as a success and beamed around the world in grainy video pictures only hours after it took place, actually went badly wrong, seriously injuring American soldiers, sources in Pakistan said yesterday. The debacle, which saw US Delta Force soldiers come under intense fire from the Taliban, prompted a review of special forces operations in Afghanistan and seems to have led to a delay in similar behind-the-lines operations.
The ferocity of the Taliban resistance caught US commandos unawares and showed that 13 days of bombing had failed to break the Taliban's organisational morale. It has sparked a debate in the Pentagon on the advisability of such daring missions in the absence of clear intelligence.
Soon after the October 20 raid, the US appeared to switch its military strategy, throwing its weight fully behind the Northern Alliance, relying on the opposition movement to provide ground troops for the campaign.
The day after the raid the Pentagon hailed the operation a success, which proved that US forces could strike anywhere at any time and in a manner of their choosing.
However, details provided to the Guardian by sources in Pakistan and the US, together with American press reports, have present quite a different picture.
· A raid led by Delta Force commandos on a Kandahar compound of the Taliban's leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, ran into heavy resistance, causing serious casualties and forcing a retreat. One US soldier's foot was blown off.
· A simultaneous raid by army rangers on a Kandahar airstrip was carried out only after forward troops had checked that the area was clear. It was mainly for the benefit of the cameras, and to boost the rangers' morale.
· The fierce Taliban response to the Delta Force raid led to a review of similar planned operations, and led to questioning of the leadership of the war's US commander, General Tommy Franks.
According to an authoritative and independent source in constant touch with Kandahar, Delta Force commandos, the most secretive and elite in the US army, searched Mullah Omar's compound but found it had been stripped of anything that might provide useful intelligence. As they emerged they came under intense fire, forcing them to retreat. The Taliban later retrieved "an American foot" from the scene, still in its boot.
"There was a lot of blood," the source said. "The Taliban had expected an attack and had taken everything of value out of the compound. They were ready and waiting. They were only too delighted when the Americans arrived. It was not as if Mullah Omar was going to leave a note inside saying: 'Osama is hiding here'."
During the raid one of the Chinook helicopters was badly damaged. The Taliban later showed off a section of its landing gear and said they had shot the helicopter down.
The account provided to the Guardian was consistent with an article published yesterday in the New Yorker magazine. The author, Seymour Hersh, said that 12 Delta commandos were wounded, three of them seriously. He quoted a US military officer as saying that the Delta assault found itself in "a tactical firefight and the Taliban had the advantage."
The commandos were forced to retreat to waiting helicopters and abandon one of the objectives of the raid - the insertion of an undercover team into the area, the New Yorker article said.
Delta Force is a primarily anti-terrorist unit based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Its very existence is never formally discussed, nor are casualties. They are trained to attack with stealth in small teams, but the Kandahar raid was an extensive, noisy production, involving a back-up force of 200 rangers, AC-130 gunships and a 100 Delta Force commandos.
At the same time, a company of rangers parachuted on to a Kandahar airfield in an operation portrayed the next day in dramatic television footage. But in his article, Mr Hersh said that before the drop, an army pathfinder team had checked that the airfield was free of Taliban forces. The raid was for the benefit of the cameras and to give young rangers with no combat experience some much needed confidence.
The last joint rangers-Delta Force operation, in Somalia in 1993, ended in disaster with the shooting down of two helicopters and the deaths of 18 American soldiers.
On October 20, the speed and intensity of the Taliban response at Mullah Omar's compound "scared the crap out of everyone", a senior officer told the New Yorker, which reported that the setback had triggered an inquiry into how such commando raids were planned and executed by Central Command.
Since military operations against the Taliban began on October 7, there has been grumbling among the Penta gon's civilian leadership that Gen Franks, an artillery officer, is too hidebound and too steeped in US military doctrine and its reliance on overwhelming firepower, to lead a special forces campaign requiring guile and stealth.
Some senior officials want special forces operations to be run directly from the Pentagon.
Gen Franks and the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, General Richard Myers, both denied that the Taliban had inflicted casualties on US forces. Gen Franks, who is based in Tampa, Florida, said there were injuries during the operation, but that "we had no one wounded by enemy fire."
The failure of the October 20 raid prompted senior British officers, to emphasise the importance of good intelligence. They made it clear they did not yet have it, and the postmortem following the raid has delayed repeat operations.
"We need proper, joined-up, serious operations," a British defence source said.
However, with better intelligence, further raids by small groups of special forces are now on the cards once more, almost certainly involving British special forces.
British military planners also advised the US that a better option would be to set up a forward operating base inside Afghanistan. But that, they said, would have to wait. "The US will have to bomb their way into that position," a British defence source said.
Meanwhile, the US strategy is now to focus firepower on assisting the Northern Alliance and other opposition groups to make advances against the Taliban. The Northern Alliance is said to be poised for major offensives on the capital Kabul and Mazar-i-Sharif after carpet-bombing by US B-52's have pummelled the Taliban lines.
Maybe the Pentagon's denials have to do with the secrecy of the Delta Forces.
Obviously it is not sticking.
Of course the Taliban people who were there returned fire ... how can you take fire and it not be ferocious? Any fire directed at you is ferocious ... so?
This is war, we're going to take casualities. The facts in the case are simple. Our special forces went into the heart of indian country on a raid to get information and ice some tangos. They came back with NO KIA's. That's a good outcome. End of story.
Semper Fi!
I dismiss this report for one reason and one reason only. The amount of firepower 200 Rangers can lay down is absolutely awe inspiring, they aren't trained to run away, and they don't panic. They are 18-21 year old shock troops, and their one reason for exsisting is to kill things. I believe if a fire fight as intense as this tripe stipulates truley had broke out, the Rangers would have mauled anything in the fire zone.
Michael
ANYTHING THEY SAY REQUIRES BUCKETLOADS OF SALT.
You are right on target. Our rangers who died in Somalia thanks to X42 and his traitor defsec, apparently killed over 500 Somalians. That was with no support or backup from the traitors in the Clintoon White House.
Now add several C130 gunships and other air support teams for total disaster for the Taliban. These young warriors are ready to kill as many Islamic Goat Humpers as they can get their sights on! We have a SECDEF and POTUS who would not allow our specops to be in the situation created by the communist and anti America/American Hersch!
This is part of the left wing lies started by Hersch the commie working for the NY Slimes! This bs worked in Nam, and they are trying for a repeat in history!
1)Lies
2)Damn Lies
3)Seymour Hersh lies.
4)Seymour Hersh lies regurgitated by left-wing propaganda outfits, like the Guardian.
If this fantasy had really occurred, does anyone not believe that the incriminating "foot" would have been immediately displayed on al-Jazeera and CNN for the world to see? Remember the grotesque display of the 18 Rangers killed in Somalia.
I read the article yesterday by Seymour Hersch or whatever his name is. Supposedly some officer told him that this is not a war for the special operations units. He's probably getting all his info from some rear echelon, chairborne ranger type whos ticked off about the special ops getting so much press and getting the action over in Afghanistan.
I have much more confidence in what we are getting from our present government than I do in any of our press people.
Uh...riiiight. I'm sure that's exactly how this went down. Our badly confused and disorganized special operation professionals versus the lighting quick, elite Taliban forces. You would think they would at least try to make their BS credible.
However, I don't think the whole thing is false. Where there is smoke, there's fire. Right now, the most telling detail is that after the raid we --
haven't seen any other raids. If this one was successful, why not try more.
after much talk about not favoring any specific group in Afghanistan, we are now supporting the Northern Alliance. Probably because don't have any other ideas.
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