Arrest the prisoners!
Posted on 11/17/2001 10:05:43 AM PST by HAL9000
PAGHMAN, Afghanistan, Nov 17, 2001 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- Several hundred Arab and Pakistani fighters waged a fierce battle against northern alliance soldiers in the rugged hills of Paghman, barely 20 kilometers (12 miles) outside the capital Kabul, witnesses and soldiers said SaturdayThe battle two days ago was the first major ground assault on retreating Arabs and Pakistanis, who fled to the mountains at dawn on Tuesday with the Taliban rulers.
The battle in Paghman was ferocious, according to Khan Aga Jan, a northern alliance soldier aligned with the Ittehad-e-Islami faction of Abdur Rassool Sayyaf.
Gesturing toward the stark mud brown mountain range in the distance, Jan said those who survived the battle were hiding there. More than 200 Arab fighters of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida movement and their Pakistani allies took part in the battle.
Several were killed, and others were arrested, Jan said. The rest fled into the rugged mountains. "We are hunting them down," Jan said.
Before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States and the U.S. airstrikes that followed, there were estimated to be about 10,000 foreign fighters in Afghanistan, most of them Arabs and Pakistanis. The others were Uzbeks, Chechens, from Indonesia and the Philippines.
Several hundred al-Qaida members were headquartered in Paghman, many of them living in the abandoned home of Sayyaf, according to Shamsul Haq, a resident who lived nearby.
Haq and Sher Mohammed, another resident of the area, independently described the battle. Twenty of the Arabs had booby trapped their bodies, said Haq.
They had a detonation device in their hands and dared their attackers to hand-to-hand combat. As the northern alliance troops attacked, the Arabs detonated the booby-traps, killing themselves and their assailants, Haq said.
Sayyaf's support for the assault on Arab militants is an unusual change of heart for the rebel leader who sided with Iraq against the U.S.-led coalition in the 1991 Gulf War.
He also has publicly opposed the presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia, the same reason bin Laden claims he has launched his terror campaign against the United States.
At his home in Paghman, Sayyaf refused to answer questions about the battle with the al-Qaida warriors or his long association with militant Arabs.
Sayyaf, who has stayed loyal to deposed president Burhanuddin Rabbani, was considered close to Arab militants fighting in Afghanistan. During the war against the Soviet occupation, Sayyaf's party had the largest number of Arabs in its ranks.
Documents shown to The Associated Press showed that Sayyaf had requested Rabbani give Afghan citizenship to 604 Arabs during his first time in power in 1993. As well Rabbani gave several Arabs Afghan passports, according to the documents.
At the time Sayyaf's lieutenant Ahmed Shah Ahmedzai was Rabbani's interior minister
On Friday, Inayat Ullah, a former secretary of Ahmedzai, found several Afghan passports belonging to Arabs of al-Qaida as well as Yemeni passports in a safe house of bin Laden's terrorist network.
Copyright 2001 Associated Press, All rights reserved
Documents shown to The Associated Press showed that Sayyaf had requested Rabbani give Afghan citizenship to 604 Arabs during his first time in power in 1993. As well Rabbani gave several Arabs Afghan passports, according to the documents.
Rabbani is back as of taday, and he has a seat still in the UN.
So it would appear that Rabbani has the support of some Pashtuns, that is good!
Don't these guys understand that is what guns are for. Don't get close enough to get killed. When challenged to hand to hand combat say, "Here, combat this!", and blow him away.
I am beginning to doubt the fiercenesss of these fighters. There basic tactic is to hide and ambush the enemy or conduct terrorists attacks on unarmed innocents. Even suicide attacks aren't courageous, they are just misguided idiots who are looking for a reward. Courage is being afraid and doing something anyway. These suicide bombers aren't afraid, they are selfishly seeking their gain in "Paradise". It seems that they are the main ones saying they are fierce, and the media of course.
Solution? Shoot them from a distance. Hand slips off detonation device, body goes "boom," mop-and-bucket man to South Kabul, please.
Lost the link but a month or so ago, there was a terrific FR historical post on just this subject. Muslims have never been able to get it together for any length of time. They've done fine with hit and run raids and terror but have never been able to create the type of organized and long term strategy which the west has mustered against them.
Undergoing maintenance?
Folks underestimate the difficulty of the air missions we undertook. Even an AC-130 has to fly from Diego Garcia. Long time in the air. So, they are probably taking advantage of the lack of need to do some maintenance work.
Additionally, folks have to remember you can shoot ammo off quicker than you can fly it in. That is my feeling as to why it took so long before we increased the tempo of the bombing -- we had to get the bombs and bullets to our bases halfway around the world.
Logistics is the long pole in this op.
Common sense is in short supply across the entire world, as are really hardened combat trained troops.
Alot could be learned from WWII Pacific campaign soldiers who survived. If this story is correct, the real tragedy, is that events such as this will mean that no surrender will be allowed. The tragedy is not in the loss of life of the Bin Laden associates, but in the loss of potential intelligence gainded during interrigation of live prisoners.
In a war arrests are not made with the enemy. They are taken prisoner! You dumb broad!
Arrest the prisoners!
The GE mini-gun which I had the pleasure of firing once ate up my whole paycheck in about 3 minutes. lol
I thought after the Gulf War we put lots of stuff at Diego -but maybe it wasn't all dumb bombs.
They had a detonation device in their hands and dared their attackers to hand-to-hand combat. As the northern alliance troops attacked, the Arabs detonated the booby-traps, killing themselves and their assailants, Haq said.
This is what the Japanese used to do to our guys in WW II. After this happened a couple of times, any Japanese soldier would wanted to surrender had to strip to his loincloth.
BTW, there're far more parallels that this war has with our Pacific War against the Japanese than it has with Viet Nam. Liberals take note.
The solution is very simple. No surrender, no quarter, no mercy, no prisoners. Exterminate the filthy vermin and pat yourself on the back for having made the world a little better.
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