Posted on 11/07/2001 7:36:46 PM PST by rwb
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Anti-Taliban forces on horseback attacked tanks in northern Afghanistan as U.S. airstrikes hit caves and vehicles and fighting raged near the key crossroads city of Mazar-i-Sharif, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.
The month-old U.S.-led bombing campaign was focused on that patch of rugged terrain, where mounted cavalry charges by the Northern Alliance were reported, according to Marine Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the U.S. military Joint Chiefs of Staff.
"This is opposition forces riding horseback into combat against tanks and armored personnel carriers," Pace said at a Pentagon briefing. "So these folks are aggressive. They're taking the war to their enemy and ours."
Asked about military activity near Mazar-i-Sharif, an essential point on the supply line to the capital Kabul, Pace said, "It is fluid. They are fighting."
Pace did not elaborate on the use of horses in the campaign, but a U.S. defense official said in such rocky areas as northern Afghanistan, with winter setting in and roads tenuous at best, traveling and fighting on horseback had advantages.
"The Northern Alliance can be characterized as a very light infantry force," the official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. "It's one of their strengths that they're accustomed to fighting with low food supplies, low ammunition, with horses aiding their mobility."
"If you had a force relying on trucks, you'd need gas and spare parts and that requires a more complicated logistics trail," the official said.
The official stressed that some tribes in the alliance have trucks and tanks, but most operate on horseback: "Given the terrain, horses are an excellent way for moving around."
LIKE WORLD WAR ONE
The United States has said for several days that airdrops to the alliance, a loose organization of tribes who oppose Afghanistan's ruling Taliban, have included not just food and ammunition but fodder for the horses, which the official said was probably bags of barley, a more compact food than baled hay.
As to whether a cavalry charge might be effective against a tank, the official said that most tanks in northern Afghanistan were mostly buried and used as artillery, and likened this to cavalry charges used in World War One against trench warfare.
The official estimated that Northern Alliance forces had several hundred horses, and said it was a logical assumption to conclude that U.S. special forces teams inside Afghanistan in this area could be on horseback as well.
Of 80 air missions made on Tuesday, Pace said two-thirds were specifically to support the Northern Alliance. The rest of the U.S. sorties were against caves and tunnels used by al Qaeda, the guerrilla network of Osama bin Laden.
Pace declined to estimate losses or casualties among the Taliban after more than 2,000 sorties since the air campaign began Oct. 7. The Taliban are sheltering bin Laden and al Qaeda guerrillas, whom Washington holds responsible for deadly Sept. 11 attacks on America.
Later on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on public television's "The Newshour with Jim Lehrer" that he would give no numbers for enemy casualties in Afghanistan.
However, he noted that in a month of air strikes, "a lot of Taliban people have been killed and a lot of al Qaeda people have been killed."
In gun camera footage shown at the briefing, U.S. precision munitions homed in on two Taliban vehicles as a human figure was seen walking between them. The vehicles were shown being destroyed.
In addition to the air campaign, the United States is working to get more special forces troops into Afghanistan to help target the Taliban. Last week, the Defense Department acknowledged there were fewer than 100 such forces in the country; that number had more than doubled by Tuesday. Symbol Name U.S. Says Anti-Taliban Mounted Forces Attack Tanks Blair: Airstrikes Not Enough, Other Actions Seen Guards Kill Gunman After Qatar Airbase Shooting U.S. Hails Further Israeli Pullout, Awaits More U.S., Other Nations to Coordinate Bioterrorism Fight UN Urged to Send Its Staff Back Into Afghanistan Colombia Rebels Threaten to Abandon Peace Talks Montesinos Said to Demand $700,000 Bribe From Jail Brazil's Cardoso Faces Pressure From U.S. on Terror Bodies of Eight Women Are Found at Mexican Border Additional Articles >
Is it just me or is it a really dumb idea to ride a horse against a tank?
The last people to do that were the Poles in 1939, and look where it got them.
Use some of those T-55 tanks the Russians sent!
Your next title will be:
"Northern Alliance Charges Burning Steel Hulks and Charred Bodies with Horses."
Everyone already knows where the 'bani positions are. The N.Alliance guys talk to them over walkie-talkies daily.
I don't know, I wan't there, but I think that a few instances did occur.
Here's a website that supports your point of view:
http://mops.uci.agh.edu.pl/~rzepinsk/1939/html/cav.htm
Except the author forgot one thing. The Wermacht assault on Poland was highly organised, and all infantry was supported by armour.
The only thing I can say is that maybe at the time they didn't realise Nazi tanks were present.
Of course, other than the trivia aspect, it really has no relation to this situation. I suspect that in the very rugged country it isn't unheard of here for soldiers engaging in reconnaisance to use horses for transport. Obviously, they aren't engaging tanks by charging on horseback, only someone completely out their mind and willing to commit suicide for no gain would attempt such a thing.
Actually, the Mujahedin, the predecessors of the Northern Alliance, used cavalry charges like this to great effect against the Russians. Partly, because tanks and APCs can't really navigate the mountains, and partly because they used the tactic to draw Russian fire-- allowing the hidden elements of the Muje to take out the Russian positions.
Riding a horse through a minefield wouldn't have got them anywhere.
The article says "... mounted cavalry charges ... ".
As for people being 'completely out of their minds', it seems there's no shortage of those, nowadays.
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