U.S. To Launch Largest-Ever Offensive In Afghanistan - Operation 'Avalanche'

NBC 17 ^ | December 8, 2003 | Associated Press

[Republican Red]

How secret can it be if they are reporting of it beforehand?

[ClearCase_guy]

NBC Notice to all al-Quaeda Operatives: "Leave Afghanistan at once. Please go to Pakistan for the next three weeks. We will sound an all-clear when you can return to Afghanistan. Thank you."

[yonif]

That's what I am wondering. But it was announced by a military spokesperson.

[yonif]

Four battalions totaling about 2,000 soldiers are to take part in the operation, dubbed "Avalanche," in southern and eastern Afghanistan, a military spokesman said.

[CasearianDaoist]

How can 4 battalions be just 2000 soldiers?

[ASA Vet]

No, AP wrote it was a "military spokesman," without giving a name or title.

If AP wrote it, it's likely made up.

[2banana]

How can 4 battalions be just 2000 soldiers?

A battalion is about 500 men

[Cap Huff]

Strange article. It seems too obvious to be disinformation, and who would be so dumb as to announce or publish a "secret" operation.

[yonif]

Could be false. But there seems to be a similar headline on the Voice of America website (http://www.voanews.com/).

[yonif]

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&scoring=d&edition=us&q=US+To+Launch+Largest-Ever+Offensive+In+Afghanistan&btnG=Search+News

[yonif]

US-Led Afghan Forces Launch Massive Operation Against Islamic Militants
VOA News
08 Dec 2003, 14:22 UTC


The U.S. military in Afghanistan says it has launched its biggest-ever ground operation against Taleban and al-Qaida remnants.
A U.S. military spokesman says some 2,000 coalition troops across eastern and southern parts of the country are taking part in Operation Avalanche. The spokesman says its mission is to crush the Islamic militants who have regained strength and have been carrying out attacks against coalition forces and aid workers.

However, the offensive is being overshadowed by the accidental killing Saturday of nine Afghan children during a U.S. air strike on an alleged terrorist hideout.

Officials in Kabul say a joint team of Afghan and U.S. military personnel is at the scene in a remote part of the southern Ghazni province to determine the cause of the civilian deaths.

American military officials and U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said they were deeply saddened by the tragic incident and expressed regret for the loss of innocent lives. They promised the coalition will make every effort to assist the families of the victims.

U.S. officials say the terrorist they were hunting, Mullah Wazir, died in the airstrike, but some Afghans in the area are disputing that account.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has asked the coalition for an explanation, and the United Nations has called for a swift and public inquiry into what it called a profoundly distressing tragedy.

[yonif]

Voice of America Article
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1036298/posts?page=12#12

(source:
http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=59BC9CC9-F55E-4CFE-AAA8B3FC4E1E1A97&title=US%2DLed%20Afghan%20Forces%20Launch%20Massive%20Operation%20Against%20Islamic%20Militants

[Cap Huff]

I briefly looked at the VOA link. Obviously somebody wants that info out there.

[TexKat]

Its no longer a secret because it is already underway. Kind of like President GWB's Thanksgiving surprise trip to Baghdad. We did not find out until after the fact.

US in Afghan offensive

From correspondents in Kabul

December 09, 2003

THE US military announced its largest-ever offensive against defiant Taliban and al-Qaeda militants, sending 2000 troops into a vast lawless swath of the south and east of the country.

The operation began as Afghan and UN officials warned that one of the military's most tragic blunders - the weekend killing of nine children in a bungled airstrike - could drive more Afghans into the arms of the rebels.

Operation Avalanche "is the largest we have ever designed", Lieutenant-Colonel Bryan Hilferty told reporters at the coalition military headquarters at Bagram, north of the capital, Kabul. The enemy "isn't going to know when we hit, he isn't going to know what we're doing".

Hilferty gave no details about the operation, including when it started or what specific provinces it was targeting.

Taliban fighters have stepped up attacks - particularly against aid workers and civilians - in provinces near the Pakistani border and in Ghazni and Zabul provinces south of the capital. A French UN worker was gunned down last month and three international workers were kidnapped in past weeks.

But Saturday's airstrike - which targeted a local Taliban militant but also killed children playing in a village in Ghazni province - highlighted the risk that a heavy US military hand may only alienate Afghan civilians.

"Every innocent who is killed has brothers, uncles, sisters and nephews - and behind them the tribe," said Sadokhan Ambarkhil, deputy governor of Paktika, one of the most dangerous provinces for coalition troops and their Afghan allies. "If 10 people are killed, how many people are saddened?"

The warplane attack also was criticised outside Afghanistan.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan was "profoundly saddened" by the children's deaths and called for a thorough investigation. "The fight against terrorism cannot be won at the expense of innocent lives," Fred Eckhard, Annan's spokesman, said in New York.

Seven boys and two girls, the oldest age 12, died when the A-10 warplane sprayed a dusty field with 30mm high-explosive rounds in Hutala village, 250km southwest of Kabul, the Afghan capital.

The attack also killed a man that US officials say was Mullah Wazir, a former district Taliban commander suspected of attacking aid groups and workers on the Kabul-Kandahar road - a top US-funded reconstruction project.

But villagers say the dead man was Abdul Hamid, a labourer in his 20s who had returned from Iran just days before his death, and that Mullah Wazir cleared out days before.

Residents and local officials suggested the Americans were fed bogus intelligence - a suspected cause of earlier deadly bombings of civilians - and criticised what they called a careless use of military might.

"I don't know why the US forces did this," said Khial Mohammad, the deputy governor of Ghazni province, where the attack took place. "Mullah Wazir wasn't there. He's not a famous commander, but he is famous for smuggling."

Hilferty, the coalition spokesman, said DNA was taken from the scene to try to prove the strike had hit its target.

At a briefing at the US military headquarters in Bagram, north of Kabul, today, Hilferty said only: "We're still working on identifying him."

Aware of the damage such incidents can do to their image, senior US officers flew into the village yesterday to offer condolences and help.

"Such mistakes could make the Afghan people think ill of the coalition," Hilferty said.

US officials insist they had prepared the attack carefully and were unaware of the children when the order was given to fire.

The wave of Taliban attacks against aid workers, US soldiers and Afghan government officials has belied American claims that it is winning the war to stabilise the country.

Two years after the fall of the Taliban, about 11,700 mostly American soldiers are still on combat missions in Afghanistan against the Taliban and their allies: al-Qaeda remnants and followers of renegade warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

The push announced today follows Operation Mountain Resolve, which involved about 1000 troops to stabilise a remote northeastern region bordering Pakistan. That operation, which was launched November 7 and ended this weekend, saw only minor skirmishes.

[TexKat]

The military spokesman was Lieutenant-Colonel Bryan Hilferty .

[Blood of Tyrants]

Easier said than done. Remember that the best form of transportation in that area is either on foot, horseback, or helicopter; and the Taliban doesn't have many helos.

[Grampa Dave]

You caught AP writing more fiction posing as a real news story.

Their use of the unnamed source often makes the NY Slimes look more reliable. We know how un reliabe the Slimes is.

[ASA Vet]

Thank you.

[yonif]

Thanks.