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Posted on 11/16/2001 1:19:55 PM PST by MeekOneGOP
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By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - American and allied forces are closing in on leaders of Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s terrorist network with more focused airstrikes, more timely intelligence and a more active hunt by U.S. special operations troops in southern Afghanistan (news - web sites), senior Pentagon (news - web sites) officials said Thursday.
``We are tightening the noose,'' said Army Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of the U.S. forces in the region.
Franks, encouraged by the sudden retreat of the Taliban militia from northern Afghanistan this week, met with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld at the Pentagon on Thursday to spell out his evolving plan for completing the destruction of bin Laden's al-Qaida network and its Taliban supporters.
On Friday, Franks is to present the plan to President Bush (news - web sites), Rumsfeld said.
At a news conference with Rumsfeld at his side, Franks described in broad terms his approach to capitalizing on the collapse of the Taliban, which he cautioned was not yet complete. He emphasized that from the start of the U.S. bombing on Oct. 7, the goal has been to destroy al-Qaida.
``The bombing will become more and more and more focused'' on al-Qaida and Taliban leaders, Franks said, as anti-Taliban forces in the north consolidate their territorial gains and U.S. special operations forces in the south work with other opposition forces and hunt for signs of the terrorists' whereabouts.
Due to the success of U.S. bombing aimed at destroying first the Taliban's air defenses and then Taliban itself, ``we simply have more capability to focus on the alligators,'' he said, referring to the terrorists and their supporters.
He said U.S. special forces in southern Afghanistan are advising opposition force commanders, helping them resupply, providing them with arms and calling in close-air support for opposition troops.
U.S. special forces have been operating in the south near Kandahar, the Taliban's political base, for the past few days, the four-star general said. They are blocking roads to try to trap al-Qaida and Taliban leaders.
Franks seemed to indicate that U.S. commandos would not undertake the difficult and risky task of hunting down al-Qaida leaders in Afghanistan's mountains, where they are known to use caves and tunnels. On the other hand, he did not rule out the possibility of a U.S. ground offensive.
``The term we use to describe our special forces is unconventional warfare forces,'' he said when a reporter asked if he expected to begin fighting a counter-guerrilla campaign. ``Does that mean that I predict that we will wind up going up into the mountains in pursuit of these groups the secretary mentioned earlier? No, I won't predict that. I will simply tell you that the lines of operation which we're undertaking at this point are satisfying to us and we intend to continue on those.''
Rumsfeld said that while it was possible that bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders could escape Afghanistan - by land or air - he thought it unlikely.
``I think we'll find him either there or in some other country. But one has to be realistic,'' he said.
In its daily update on bombing, the Pentagon reported that six target areas were struck on Wednesday, mainly near Kabul and Kandahar. The targets included al-Qaida and Taliban forces and caves and tunnels, officials said. Three C-17 cargo planes dropped a total of 36,000 packets of humanitarian rations.
As the military strategy in Afghanistan evolves, so is the U.S. approach to providing humanitarian assistance to the millions of Afghans who have been displaced in recent weeks.
Franks said U.S. forces in northern areas will spend the next few days assessing the situation in areas where food aid is urgently needed, and then advise international relief organizations on the level of risk.
``It is premature to say that things are stable enough in Northern Afghanistan so that we should feel very comfortable with all of our humanitarian resupply efforts,'' Franks said. He said the U.S. military, while expanding its own relief effort, will not instruct non-governmental organizations on how to proceed.
``What we will be doing is giving them information upon which they can base their decisions about where to move the humanitarian assistance,'' he said.
The Pentagon has been dropping food rations into Afghanistan throughout the military campaign but it plans to reduce those as food convoys reach more areas by land, said Joseph J. Collins, a top humanitarian assistance planner at the Pentagon. He said the United Nations (news - web sites) and other groups conducted land shipments of food and other supplies into Afghanistan even during the heaviest U.S. airstrikes.
That means future food convoys might not need troops to protect them, Collins said.
Earlier Stories
Rumsfeld: U.S. Will Find bin Laden (November 15)
Pentagon: Some Top Leaders Killed (November 15)
Some Al-Qaida Heads Believed Killed (November 15)
Some Al-Qaida Leaders Believed Killed (November 15)
Jets Bomb Suspected al Qaida Hideout (November 14)
U.S. Considers Next Afghan War Moves (November 14)
United States Special Operations soldiers keep watch from the open back end of a U.S. Army Special Forces Chinook helicopter, near Khoja Bahawuddin, Afghanistan November 15, 2001, as they cross by air into Afghanistan from Tajikistan. Two helicopters with small U.S. Special Forces teams provided logistics and security for Andrew Natsios, the director of USAID, who visited the longtime Northern Alliance stronghold, 220 miles northeast of Kabul, to review projects funded by the U.S. aid agency. REUTERS/Brennan Linsley-POOL
At sundown, a United States Air Force Special Operations soldier walks by an Afghan boy as others loyal to the rebel Northern Alliance look on, in Khoja Bahawuddin, Afghanistan, November 15, 2001. Two helicopters with small U.S. Special Forces teams provided logistics and security for Andrew Natsios, the director of USAID, who visited the longtime Northern Alliance stronghold to review projects funded by the U.S. aid agency. Natsios is the highest U.S. official to visit Afghanistan in twenty years. REUTERS/POOL/Brennan Linsley
FILE--The rarely-photographed Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar is seen in this undated file photo. In an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp.'s Pashto-language service broadcast Thursday, Nov. 15, 2001, Omar said the pullback from Afghanistan's urban centers was in line with an overall strategy to destroy America. The Taliban also reportedly rejected any form of coalition government with the country's former leader. (AP Photo)
It's ABOUT TIME the started to provide pictures of some of the U.S. Troops over there!
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