Posted on 11/25/2001 5:37:07 PM PST by codeword
AMERICAN forces were gathering to attack the Taliban's last stronghold of Kandahar last night. Waves of helicopters were reported to be ferrying troops and ground armour to an airfield close to the Taliban's spiritual centre in the south of Afghanistan.
The Pentagon refused to comment on the report, although information has leaked in recent days of plans for 1,600 US Marines based on ships in the Arabian Sea to go into action on the ground.
Tribal fighters took control of the airfield shortly before large military transport planes and helicopters began to circle and land, said Mohammad Anwar, spokesman for Gud Fida Mohammad, a commander of the anti-Taliban Achakzai tribe.
In Kandahar, one resident said the roar of planes could be heard and large flashes had been seen from the direction of the airfield, 12 miles outside the city.
American troops were said to have secured the perimeter of the field, which has been a target of intense bombing since US air raids in Afghanistan began on Oct 7. A stream of helicopters flew into the base during the evening, unloading soldiers with packs and baggage, Anwar said.
Pakistan ordered a further tightening of border security and issued its frontier patrols with photographs of Osama bin Laden and his al-Qa'eda lieutenants, said officials.
Controls along the border had already been stepped up, with troops and tanks positioned on the 1,500-mile frontier with Afghanistan.
The operation in Kandahar came as hundreds of Taliban prisoners, many of them professing loyalty to bin Laden, were reported dead after an uprising among captured fighters was suppressed by the Northern Alliance, backed by British and US forces.
The bloody incident at Mazar-i-Sharif, in which an undisclosed number of alliance fighters were also killed, marred what had been an inexorable process of mopping up the last Taliban resistance in northern Afghanistan.
Last night Taliban control of the Kunduz enclave was crumbling, but the alliance had yet to take over completely. The fall of the town will mark the effective end of the Taliban's war in the north.
The Pentagon confirmed that it backed the alliance to put down the Mazar uprising, using AC130 gunships and MH60 Black Hawk helicopters. The air support was ordered when American observers - possibly from the CIA - were caught in the fighting.
One American was missing, although officials in Washington refused to confirm this or state in what capacity he had been active.
There were reports from the prisoner uprising, in a sprawling, mud-walled 19th century fort, that an American trapped in the crossfire had become their first fatal combat casualty of the campaign against terrorism.
The Pentagon said all forces were accounted for but ABC television quoted US government officials as saying that he was "affiliated with the CIA".
A contingent of 40 US special forces was seen operating in the area during the fighting.
Alex Perry, a Time magazine reporter, said British and US special forces fought alongside the alliance and guided US aircraft bombing runs. He said the fighting might have been triggered by the arrival of an unnamed British journalist. "It's merely the sight of a Western face."
Mr Perry said he saw a man in US air force uniform shot dead as British and US reinforcements raced in.
About a dozen British commandos in civilian clothes and US troops in uniform were fighting alongside the alliance forces, he added. They were not taking prisoners. "The mission by the Americans and Northern Alliance is to kill every single one."
The prisoners, many thought to have concealed grenades, were being held at the fort, the newly recaptured headquarters of the warlord Gen Rashid Dostum.
Arnim Stauth, an ARD Television cameraman, said: "There were a lot of explosions all at once. The Taliban very quickly took guns from the dead guards. An American adviser said they got about 30 guns and there were about 500 Taliban."
The alliance brought in tanks and a US military adviser called support via a satellite phone.
The prisoners were non-Afghans, mostly Pakistanis, Chechens and Arabs, who seemed to have feared they would be executed.
"There was general pandemonium," said Simon Brooks, head of Red Cross operations in the region who was checking on the condition of the prisoners when the fighting erupted.
Zaher Wahadat, an alliance spokesman, said: "They were all killed." The battle lasted all day but the Pentagon reported last night that calm had been restored.
The Taliban had been brought from the siege of Kunduz. Arriving late at night they were not properly searched and disarmed by Northern Alliance guards.
Ulugbek Engashev, a witness, said hundreds had died. "It was total chaos, the Northern Alliance brought in tanks but they made no difference. The Taliban came here to die, they have nothing to lose."
Meanwhile, the Taliban's last stronghold in the north was crumbling after the strategic road junction of Khanabad, 12 miles to the east, was overrun by tanks and infantry of the alliance, amid fresh defections by hundreds of Afghan Taliban.
An advance party of alliance forces was last night entering Kunduz itself, after encountering Taliban resistance, an alliance spokesman said.
Commanders indicated that the main assault would begin in earnest today. Mutaleb Beq, a senior warlord from Takhar province, said: "My troops have already entered Khanabad. We will enter Kunduz tomorrow."
A supporting force of 25 tanks was reported to be in position to the east of the city. Yesterday saw a complete halt to American bombing strikes, after days of punishing raids by waves of high altitude B52 bombers.
Gen Mohamed Daoud Khan, the commander of the mainly Tajik alliance army massed to the east of Kunduz, had said earlier that local Afghan Taliban had until the end of Sunday to abandon their front lines.
In return for surrendering, they would be offered a blanket amnesty.
No such agreement had been reached with foreign Taliban trapped in the city, who are thought to include Pakistanis, Arabs, Uzbeks and other Islamic extremists loyal to bin Laden and the al Qa'eda network.
Gen Daoud warned foreign Taliban that any resistance would trigger fierce fighting. Foreign Taliban have asked for safe passage out of the country, under the auspices of the United Nations - a request which the alliance has denied. Instead, Gen Daoud said captured foreigners would be tried.
The prospect of a bloody end to the siege of Kunduz is still very real. But the threat of a race to enter the city by two rival alliance armies receded, as Gen Daoud made public an agreement he had reached with Gen Dostum, who controls the western front.
They were all killed. Good!
A classic turkey shoot.
So9
I think it is great there will be Americans up close and personal for the fall of the "Spiritual capitol" of Kandahar. I hope the situation develops in such a way that it is very inconvenient for us to take any prisoners, if you know what I mean.
The NINE (9) C-130 Spectre gunships will be kept busy as well. They will have to add a new chapter in the koran about the fire and brimstone falling from the heavens.
From Frank Vaughan's (former AC-130 gunner) website, on what it's like to incur the gunship's wrath:
Now imagine a different scenario. You and your buddies have been bothering this Army outpost for about a week now. Lobbing in mortars, probing the defenses, generally raising hell. You've built lots of ladders and lots of coffins and you are ready to attack. You've even brought in some NVA Regulars to help ensure that you kick some American ass.
It's late and dark. Your probing fire becomes more intense, your mortars are hammering the firebase, your sappers are moving in to blow the perimeter, and your buddies are massing in the treeline for the first of many assaults during the night.
The Americans don't back down. They never do. You attack once, twice, three times. You feel the imperialist dogs weakening. You can smell victory. Unfortunately, you didn't hear the radio call that went out a little while ago. You have no idea that an AC-130 gunship is in orbit overhead. You can't hear the engines over the noise of battle.
We've been watching for about 5 minutes. We can see your troop concentrations in the tree lines because our infrared works through the smoke of battle. We've carefully plotted the perimeter. We watch your troop surge across the open ground hoping to breech the American lines. We tighten our orbit and drop the left wing. We put #1 20MM on line, and using our infrared, we target the largest concentrations of your troops.
BBBRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP.
Suddenly long ribbons of red fire reach down from the sky (tracers, usually every 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th or 10th round) and 20mm high explosive shells pepper your formation. In a matter of seconds an area the size of a football field has at least one round hit in every square foot.
BBBRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP
Another ribbon of fire, your attack is decimated.
BBBRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP
Another ribbon, and now the reserves in the tree line have been reduced to a copper-smelling red mist.
The pattern continues...thousands of rounds are fired. And now the 40mm begin to take its toll. Every time two or three survivors bunch up, they are blown to shreds by 40mm, and never even hear the incoming rounds.
Some of your survivors do make it back to the base camp...and they bring death with them. We now know where your base camp is, because we used our infrared and low light level TV to track your survivors as they struggle back. Using our laser designator, we bring in three flights for F-4D Phantons equipped with laser guided bombs, and obliterate nearly every trace of the camp.
Its certainly convenient of them.
I saw one of the old 'Puff the magic dragons" do its thing one night at Vung Tau (river entrance up to Saigon, 1966) while I was on a 10k ton ammo ship anchored there. The flares from that plane set the tarps for the hatchs on fire. What a sight! They say the VC was trying to sabotage our ships but I never saw any VC. (at least not than night, lol)
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