Posted on 02/26/2004 12:48:02 AM PST by Anti-Bubba182
The top secret international commando group which tracked down Saddam Hussein is being transferred from Iraq to Afghanistan to spearhead the hunt for Osama bin Laden.
Task Force 121, a 1400-strong unit drawn from the U.S. army's Delta Force, Rangers and Green Berets, U.S. navy Seals, and attached elements of British and Australian SAS and Canadian special forces, will be used as the cutting edge of an offensive aimed at netting or killing top al Qaeda fugitives.
The unit, which may be renamed before deploying on the Afghan side of the frontier with Pakistan's lawless tribal lands, is moving in because of improving intelligence on the movements of the terror network's high command.
The 11,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan and a 12,000-man Pakistani army division are preparing for a "hammer and anvil" offensive from both sides of the border to trap terrorist leaders and fighters.
The main targets are bin Laden, Ayman al Zawahiri, his deputy, and Sheikh Mohammed Omar, the deposed Taliban regime leader. Two- thirds of the original "inner circle" commanders appointed by bin Laden are already dead or in custody.
The remaining fugitives are believed to be sheltering with Pashtun tribes, guarded by hundreds of Arab, Uzbek and Chechen bodyguards trained in al Qaeda's Afghan camps. Pentagon sources say they are confident of gaining control of the area and keeping the survivors on the run.
The Pakistani army, which until recently refused to interfere in the affairs of the semi-autonomous tribal lands, is using tactics dating back to the era of the British Raj by threatening to punish entire clans for giving sanctuary to terrorists.
On the Afghan side, U.S. troops have been basing platoon- or company-sized units in mountain villages to help win the trust of local people and gather better intelligence on the movement of strangers along ancient smugglers' trails. While Task Force 121 was engaged in Iraq, the secret war against al Qaeda and the Taliban has been waged by relatively small numbers of British SAS and SBS troopers and about 40 soldiers from Canada's Joint Task Force Two, aided by Norwegian army mountain warfare specialists.
In New York, a poll found three in 10 Americans said bin Laden should be the first victim if executions were televised - and 21% said they would pay for the privilege.
Sound Off...Would you pay for the privilege to see bin Laden executed? Join the discussion.
Oops. I didn't know it was a secret. I have been telling everyone.
I have seen a big increase in news activity about Bin Ladin's, "Time running out" and so forth. Whether it is or not is another question.
I am taking the increase in reports as significant because Bin Laden is an unusually tall foreigner in that area and is supposed to be with a larger group, which I hope will make him easier to discover.
I don't think he has a local network of associates of very long standing as Saddam had with him. Also, if he is in the mountains he won't have the advantage of Urban areas with a large population to blend into.
Send in the Ghurkas already.
U.S. search for bin Laden intensifies
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
The Pentagon is moving elements of a supersecret commando unit from Iraq to the Afghanistan theater to step up the hunt for Osama bin Laden.
A Defense Department official said there are two reasons for repositioning parts of Task Force 121: First, most high-value human targets in Iraq, including Saddam Hussein, have been caught or killed. Second, intelligence reports are increasing on the whereabouts of bin Laden, the terror leader behind the September 11 attacks.
"Iraq has become more of a policing problem than a hunt for high-value Iraqis," the defense official said. "Afghanistan is the place where 121 can do more."
Task forces typically change names when they move, so it is likely that the commando unit arriving in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region will take a new name.
Task Force 121 is a mix of Army Delta Force soldiers and Navy SEALs, transported on helicopters from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. The SEALs and soldiers are based at Joint Special Operations Command in Fort Bragg, N.C.
Delta-SEAL teams typically move into theater, practice missions and wait for military and CIA intelligence to provide the location of a target, such as Saddam.
The new task force to hunt bin Laden in the Afghanistan area likely will be led by a Navy SEAL who was toasted in Washington while working antiterrorism issues in the Bush administration. The Washington Times is withholding his name because of the secret nature of the operation.
Military sources said reports of bin Laden's movements are becoming more numerous as the fugitive Saudi, leader of the al Qaeda terrorist network, hides in the mountainous terrain straddling the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
"They're getting better intelligence, and they've gotten better at fusing the intelligence," a second defense source said.
A CIA-military intelligence team conducted a similar operation in Iraq to catch Saddam. Officers made a schematic of family members and Ba'athist officials close to Saddam and questioned them on his whereabouts. The team hit pay dirt when a recently detained Iraqi revealed precise information on the ousted dictator's whereabouts on a farm south of Tikrit.
Task Force 121 joined a 4th Infantry Division unit Dec. 13 in raiding the farm and finding Saddam hidden in a hole.
The commando task force took Saddam to Tikrit in a Special Operations "Little Bird" helicopter before he was imprisoned in the Baghdad area.
Speculation that the United States is close to finding bin Laden heightened last month when military officers in Afghanistan predicted that the terror leader would be killed or captured by year's end.
"We have a variety of intelligence, and we're sure we're going to catch Osama bin Laden and [Taliban leader] Mullah [Mohammed] Omar this year," Army Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty, spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said in January. "We've learned lessons from Iraq, and we're getting improved intelligence from the Afghan people."
A few days earlier, Lt. Gen. David Barno, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, told the BBC: "You can be assured that we're putting a renewed emphasis on closing this out and bringing these two individuals to justice, as well as the other senior leadership of that organization. They represent a threat to the entire world, and they need to be destroyed."
Bin Laden is thought to be in the lawless tribal areas along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Officials say U.S. troops do not cross into Pakistan, leaving the hunt on the ground for bin Laden to the CIA and the Pakistan army.
But specific intelligence on bin Laden's whereabouts might prompt the use of a Delta-SEAL task force to raid his Pakistan hide-out, officials say.
Gen. John Abizaid, chief of U.S. Central Command, recently praised Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's willingness to send troops into unfriendly tribal areas, where bin Laden reportedly is popular.
"I talk to him frequently," Gen. Abizaid said of Gen. Musharraf. "I just visited him the other day. I saw him after one of two assassination attempts. He knows that al Qaeda is trying to kill him, and he absolutely, positively wants to get the problem under control.
"But there are difficulties that he has that are associated with working in the tribal areas that he has to work through on his own," Gen. Abizaid said.
http://washingtontimes.com/national/20040223-012312-3087r.htm
Bring 'em on, Osama's next, ping!
8 Afghan President Declares Taliban Beaten ~ Washington Times - AP | 2/26/04
US commando unit arrives in Afghanistan: KABUL, Feb 26: Scores of US commandos have arrived in Afghanistan from Iraq to arrest Osama Bin Laden. The same commando unit was involved in the capture of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussain. US have intensified its search operation for the arrest of Osama recently. (PPI) (Posted @ 11:45 PST)
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