How Americans Fell Foul Of Al-Qaeda's Last Stand

How Operation Anaconda faltered against stiffer than expected resistance by well-supplied fighters

IT WAS pitch dark on Saturday morning when B52 bombers started pounding the deep valleys around Gardez, signalling the start of Operation Anaconda, the American push to squeeze the life out of the last big stronghold of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.
For the American military and their allies, the operation is proving to be the bloodiest yet of the War on Terror and there are indications that al-Qaeda had long ago laid plans for this struggle.

The villagers of Shahi-Kot were surprised by the sudden appearance last December of a group of al-Qaeda commanders, who offered them money to give up their mountain-top homes.

The fighters needed somewhere to hide and the forbidding peaks of the Arma Mountains, with their network of caves built 20 years ago for the war against the Soviet Union, was where they decided to make their last stand.

Tribal leaders passed on warnings to US officials of several hundred men moving into this area of eastern Afghanistan, some bringing families with them. But at that stage the Americans were heavily engaged elsewhere and the intelligence was kept secret, although the movements were monitored.

More recently the CIA and American military began to observe closely what appeared to be a significant movement of Taleban and al-Qaeda forces in the direction of Gardez, in eastern Afghanistan. It is believed to be an important historic location for the Taleban because of its links with the previous war with the Soviet Army. Sitting close to the border, it is also strategically suited to a last stand, with potential exit routes through the mountains.

The Americans took a gamble. General Tommy Franks, Commander-in-Chief of US Central Command in Tampa, Florida, made a deliberate decision to allow the Taleban and al-Qaeda forces to consolidate south of Gardez, so that a large-scale assault could be mounted against them, and the exit routes blocked.(Bravo!)

For several weeks the Americans photographed the movement of fighters and eavesdropped as they communicated on cell and satellite phones and short-range radios.

General Franks, who has been criticised for being too cautious in this campaign, was determined not to repeat the mistakes of Tora Bora, where fighters were able to fight or buy their way out.

The US battle plan was codenamed Operation Anaconda, after the giant South American snake that envelops its prey, then squeezes the life out of it.

The planning began at US Central Command in Tampa and further consultations were held at General Franks’s forward base at Camp Doha in Kuwait. The broad plan was then sent to the American commanders at Bagram, north of Kabul, for detailed tactical work.

When General Richard Myers, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited Afghanistan a fortnight ago, the battle plan was ready.

Central to the plan was a decision to recruit, equip and train an Afghan force of 1,000. They were selected and trained by US special operations troops at Khost, east of Gardez.

The force of well-equipped Afghans, with about 900 American soldiers and 200 special forces troops from six coalition countries, appeared to be the most significant assault formation put together since the campaign began on October 7.

Even so, defence sources admitted that the fighting ability of the Taleban and al-Qaeda had been underestimated and that it had been necessary to bring forward a squadron of A10 “Warthog” tank-busting aircraft to add to the firepower already assembled.

General Franks told his commanders on the ground last week that they should pick the moment to attack, to ensure “tactical surprise”.

However, in the towns around Gardez last night there were suggestions that Saif Rahman, the Taleban commander leading the thousand or so fighters in the hills of Shahi-Kot, got wind that an attack was imminent.

A local Afghan warlord, Taj Mohammad Wardak, the Governor of Paktia Province, admitted that a week ago he tried to broker a deal with Commander Rahman to evacuate the area after local reports that the commander’s men were running short of food. Whether Governor Wardak knew about Operation Anaconda, the US will not say.

In Washington at 9pm on Friday night, President Bush was told that Operation Anaconda had begun. One villager, who gave his name as Roseuddin, said that earlier on Friday al-Qaeda commanders were telling the few civilians left to leave. He said that some of the joint Taleban and al-Qaeda force also fled, but not the Chechen and Arab volunteers.

Those left behind split up into small groups, some only into threes. Some moved into caves with munitions and enough food and water to survive a prolonged siege. Others took shelter amid the icy peaks that stretch from 8,000ft to 11,000ft, waiting to ambush the American helicopters.

By midday on Saturday it was clear to American commanders that the resistance was much more fierce than expected. There was a report that a six-vehicle convoy of Afghan troops had been ambushed in a mortar attack and 20 men were dead. The rest were trying to get back to Gardez.

America suffered its first fatality of the operation. Chief Warrant Officer Stanley Harriman of the 3rd Special Forces Group, based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, was killed, along with three Afghans, when their pick-up truck was hit by a mortar shell.

In freezing winds it was difficult for the allied troops to keep their footing on the mountain shale.

By dusk Safi Ullah, a member of the ruling council of Gardez, was reporting that men from the Eastern Alliance were pulling back to towns ten miles from the front line.

General Franks said that the enemy needed “further softening up”. This was carried out by B52s dropping 2,000lb thermobaric bombs that suck the air from caves, suffocating those inside.

In nearby villages witnesses told of seeing a “necklace” of explosions. Major Ralph Mills, a US spokesman, said that by Sunday night coalition aircraft had dropped more than 270 bombs, concentrating on vehicles, anti-aircraft sites, troop positions and caves that could be identified from satellite photographs. By Monday US commanders felt confident enough to order ground forces to try again.

The first attack on the US special forces Chinooks came at 3.30am. Two tried to land with about 40 troops. One was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade as it was trying to take off and an American soldier fell out.

The helicopters made their escape from the immediate area, but the Chinook that had been hit had to land close by. The second Chinook picked up the crew and all troops on board. It flew to where it could safely drop off the air crew, then turned back to allow the special forces team to land.

The second successful counterattack, later on Monday, came as another pair of Chinooks were ferrying more US troops. As the aircraft were flying away, six men were killed in an ambush. It was up to 12 hours before the Americans mounted a rescue mission to recover the dead and wounded.

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March 06, 2002

Six-nation force aids US assault diehard taleban

By Michael Evans, Defence Editor

ANACONDA was intended to be a “set-piece” military operation to mop up the remnants of the Taleban and al-Qaeda fighters who had stayed in Afghanistan, posing a continuing threat to the country’s stability. The plan was to involve as many of the coalition forces as possible to underline the multinational effort to eliminate the Taleban and their foreign “mercenaries”. However, although British special forces have played a significant role in previous clashes with the Taleban and al-Qaeda, this time it was to be the turn of the other coalition partners.

According to defence sources, the countries that deployed special forces to Afghanistan had been urging the Americans to let them participate in an offensive action. The six countries named by the Pentagon as partners in Operation Anaconda were Canada, Germany, France, Norway, Denmark and Australia.

Britain still has SAS and Royal Marines’ Special Boat Service troops in Afghanistan, although there has been a rotation of the British special forces units and the numbers have been reduced for the time being. Their main role is not to engage in infantry assaults but to participate in discreet operations, and it was being emphasised yesterday that Operation Anaconda mainly involved conventional troops. It is being led by American troops from the 10th Mountain Division and the 101st “Screaming Eagles” Airborne Division. Britain’s contingent of conventional troops is tied up with the peacekeeping operation in Kabul, forming the bulk of the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf).

However, D Company of 40 Commando Royal Marines is based on board HMS Ocean, the Royal Navy’s helicopter carrier, which has just taken over from the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious on patrol duty in the Arabian Sea. The Marines are assigned to Britain’s Operation Veritas, the codename for the British contribution to the War on Terror, but have yet to be used by the Americans in any offensive capacity. D Company took over from B Company, which was deployed to Bagram airfield, north of Kabul, but was also not used in combat.

The special forces soldiers from the other coalition partners assigned to Operation Anaconda have been ordered to “hold the line” and to cut off exit routes as the main bulk of the American force of 900 troops, backed by 1,000 Afghan fighters, mount attacks on Taleban and al-Qaeda mountain hideouts.

The French have contributed aircraft as well as special forces. French diplomatic sources said that 16 Super Etendard bombers based on the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, and six Mirages 2000 reconnaissance aircraft, flying from Manas airbase in Kyrgyzstan, were carrying out regular sorties.

Most of the other countries have supplied between 30 and 40 special forces troops. The Defence Ministry in Ottawa said that Canada had provided snipers from the 3rd Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, as well as special forces troops.

Australia has 150 special forces soldiers in Afghanistan who are members of the Australian SAS, modelled on the British Army’s elite regiment. A spokesman for the Australian High Commission in London declined to comment on how many were engaged in Operation Anaconda

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