U.S. Hits Taliban Base Inside Kabul

Reuters | November 5, 2001 | SAYED SALAHUDDIN

[HAL9000]

Hotel destroyed in Kabul by US bombing raid

ABU DHABI, Nov 05, 2001 (Itar-Tass via COMTEX) -- A hotel was destroyed in Kabul by U.S. missiles on Monday. The Vaghi Bala hotel was situated in the western part of the Afghan capital, close to the centre of the city. Several trucks with Taliban troops were also destroyed.

U.S. planes subjected to "carpet bombing" the northern regions of Afghanistan on Sunday night. The blows were dealt, in the first place, at the positions of the Taliban troops near the city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

(c) 1996-2001 ITAR-TASS. All rights reserved.

[Travis McGee]

KABUL (Reuters) - U.S. rockets on Monday blasted a hotel in the Afghan capital used by Taliban troops, leaving the street littered with the wreckage of a Taliban vehicle and pieces of bodies, residents said. They heard what sounded like helicopters before the rockets slammed into the base just before dawn. That would mark a change in U.S. tactics from using high-flying jets.

Bigtime change, or rather the next step in the progression of tactical employment.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

[Squantos]

Apaches on the warpath maybe ? ........... I LIKE it !!

Stay Safe !

[Clinton's a rapist]

I want to see us hit the mosques, good and hard. Then I'll know we're really serious about this thing.

[LenS]

And to think that some State Dept. spokesman will probably lecture the Israelis the next time their choppers hit a building on the West Bank.

This is good news. It will force the Taliban to hide even more.

[MedicalMess]

and pieces of bodies

Come and git yourn BBQ body parts here. Yum! Please pass the Taliban hand up front here. I'm gonna git some fresh fingers to eat.

[GeronL]

Maybe Commanche helicopters? Super Cobra's?

[Two Thirds Vote Aye]

``There are certainly casualties, but (they are) not many compared with the amount of bombs that are dropped there,''
Himat said, maintaining that the Taliban had adjusted tactics to minimize casualties.

Right. Like hiding in mosques, schools, and hospitals.

[Squantos]

Yeah that's kinda a thorn in my butt too. Were trying to define freedom fighters from terrorist's to other countries while that country's innocents are attacked daily . IDF needs to just do it. It's easier to get forgiveness than it is permission in dealing with such issues. At least that is how I'd handle it if I were Israels PM. Yessir YouRfat should be called "dead man err ahhh WORM walking".......

Stay Safe !

[GeronL]

I gotta try that the next time I play a wargame... but if I minimize casualties.. how will I win? (I probably won't)

[kattracks]

Right. Like hiding in mosques, schools, and hospitals.

Not to mention lying.

[MistyCA]

Oh Yuck! You sure didn't do a thing for my tummy! Fingers? You be one sick puppy... ;)

[samtheman]

Heavy ``stick'' bombing by B-52s directed by U.S. soldiers on the ground has taken its toll on the Taliban according to aid workers in Islamabad who estimate that up to 300 Taliban wounded have been taken to Kabul military hospitals in the past week. Military experts in Pakistan said that with the number of wounded at that level, the number of dead would be between 30 and 50.

Who knows anything about these numbers? The only thing we can know for sure is that they are bare minimums. We know that the number of wounded can't be LESS than the 300 that the aid workers counted, but could be considerably more. Also, about this supposed ratio of 1/10 killed. Did that ratio hold true in WTC? I don't think so. Would it hold true if one of the rockets scored a direct hit on a dining hall crammed with soldiers? I don't think so. I think we can reasonably hope for a much higher scumbag bodycount than the press is willing to admit.

[dglang]

The first time the AC130 gunships were used, the people on the ground said that they sounded like helicopters. It seems unlikely that the relatively slow and low flying helicopters would be used in or very near to a city. Perhaps they were AC130's in this case also.

I could more readily understand helicopters being used if they were escorting some ground troops (special forces) on a covert mission than just an attack on a Taliban base within a city.

I guess we will have to wait for U.S. confirmation to know exactly what happened.

[Straight Vermonter]

Sounds like they had pretty good intel about what was going on in Kabul.

[SLB]

Hard to tell what type of helicpoter. Maybe AH-64 or even a Little Bird (OH-6). Good thing to keep everyone guessing at this time. Loose Lips Sink Ships, and get helicopters shot down.

[D2BAH]

It strikes me as damned odd that every freakin "press" report we get seems able to specifiy how many pore civilians get killed by our carelessness and crumby, innacurate equipment, but we never hear ANYTHING that sounds like a reliable count of dead or wounded Talliboneheads. Why?

[b4its2late]