Posted on 03/09/2002 3:41:36 PM PST by Pokey78
SNOW was falling hard as the convoy set off after midnight. Mohammed Yasin and 600 of his Afghan compatriots huddled in the back of the Russian-made lorries, clutching AK-47 rifles with spare ammunition strapped to their chests. Ahead, small groups of American commandos led the way in light vehicles with orange sheets tied to their roofs as a signal to other coalition forces. The lights of Gardez dwindled in the valley as the first coil of Operation Anaconda wound slowly up a treacherous mountain track towards the Al-Qaeda positions. Hours passed as the convoy of 60 vehicles crept upwards with headlights switched off, wheels often sliding on icy rock. “We sat there in silence, holding our guns,” Yasin said. “We told each other not to worry.” The convoy entered a long gorge. Somewhere above them, Yasin knew, were networks of mountain tunnels and caves swarming with Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters. The Americans had been watching them gather for weeks. As dawn spilt over the peaks of the Shah-i-Kot range in eastern Afghanistan, US forces and their Afghan allies were stealthily encircling their prey. The Pentagon’s aim was to constrict then crush, anaconda-style, one of the last significant pockets of resistance by fighters loyal to Osama Bin Laden. Surprise should have been on the American side, but it was Al-Qaeda that fired the first shots. “We were still in the trucks when suddenly all hell went loose,” said Yasin. “A mortar landed right in front of my truck.” The Afghans leapt from the lorries and tried to fight back, as fire rained down from the rims of the gorge. “It was useless because it was misty and we couldn’t see their positions. We were just firing at the mountains,” Yasin said.
Another mortar exploded close to an American vehicle. “I turned and saw one dead American soldier lying on the ground,” said Yasin. “We didn’t stand a chance,” added Said Wahidullah, 35, an Afghan commander whose 40 men were among those pinned down by the ambush. “They knew we were coming. I was shocked and angry and embarrassed that we could be caught out so easily.” It was scarcely an encouraging beginning to what has since developed into the biggest and bloodiest US-led ground offensive of the five-month-old Afghan war. At a time when many Americans had begun to believe that the Afghan campaign was over — and were already looking forward to the next military challenge in Iraq — the ambush at Shah-i-Kot plunged the Pentagon into a ferocious firefight that, one week later, has yet to be decisively resolved. As pockets of well-dug-in Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters continued to resist a high- altitude American onslaught in atrocious winter conditions yesterday, the Pentagon was facing awkward questions about its conduct of a pivotal offensive that has so far cost eight American lives. For all the Pentagon’s overwhelming fire power, it became clear last week that America has not broken the resolve of significant groups of fighters described by General Tommy Franks, the US military commander, as “very hard, capable and dedicated”. Nor have the coalition allies or Afghanistan’s provisional government been able to impose order on a country still acutely vulnerable to ruinous internal strife. The treacherous ambitions of rival warlords, some of whom America counts as its allies, have made parts of Operation Anaconda look more like a viper’s nest. At stake in the battle near Gardez is not just another Al-Qaeda cave network. The longer the fighting continues, the louder the complaints in Washington that the Pentagon has committed itself to a war it does not know how to end. In Gardez, it started with “Mr Brown”. In early January, Pakistani and US intelligence agents began picking up reports that Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters who had escaped American bombing in the Tora Bora area in December were gathering near Gardez. According to local officials, about 15 US special forces came to Gardez and set up a base in a mud-walled fortress on the outskirts of the town. For nearly two weeks the senior American officer, calling himself Mr Brown, met tribal leaders, local warlords and Afghan commanders. “I met with the Americans several times,” said Saifullah, a local commander who uses only one name. “I introduced them to a lot of local people. I told them who to trust and who to be wary of.” On January 16 a convoy of about 50 cars carrying Mr Brown, eight tribal leaders and dozens of armed guards left Gardez for Zormat, a village close to the mountains. There Brown learned that Al-Qaeda fighters had taken refuge in caves. Some had brought their families and left them in local villages. The fugitives were said to have been led by Saif Rakh-man, the nephew of a former Taliban agriculture minister. One Afghan commander claimed last week that an attempt was made to a negotiate a surrender. “We sent several go-betweens to Rakhman,” said Abdul Mateen Hassankheil. “But weeks passed and it became clear that he was just trying to gain time, waiting for spring when it would be easier to fight.” At the Pentagon, where the enemy build-up was being monitored by satellite surveillance and unmanned reconnaissance drones, officials were determined to avoid a repeat of the Tora Bora offensive, when the Americans relied heavily on troops provided by local warlords. Hundreds of Al-Qaeda fighters are believed to have escaped, some after paying bribes to the Americans’ proxies. There was little doubt in Gardez that a new kind of offensive was brewing. For the first time, soldiers from the US Army’s 101st Airborne Division were deployed for combat. They were joined by men from the 10th Mountain Division, specialists in alpine warfare. In all, up to 900 American soldiers joined smaller units of US special forces and 200 coalition troops. Brown and his men also spent weeks recruiting 1,000 local fighters and providing them with equipment and basic training. When Yasin’s lorry rolled out of Gardez in a blizzard eight days ago, Pentagon officials believed the force was more than enough to take on the 150 or so enemy fighters initially believed to be hiding in caves at altitudes up to 11,000ft. The ambush of Yasin’s convoy was the first of a series of shocks. The American soldier killed by mortar fire that day was identified as Chief Warrant Officer Stanley Harriman, 34, a Green Beret from Wade, North Carolina. His widow was told within hours. “It’s the nightmare that all military wives have had,” Sheila Harriman said. “The black car arrives in the driveway and they jump out in their dress greens.” Throughout last weekend there were exchanges of fire as the American forces and their Afghan allies tried to secure positions to prevent the enemy from escaping. The Pentagon poured air power into the mountains in support of the troops on the ground. For the first time a US bomber dropped a newly developed thermobaric bomb, designed to suck the oxygen out of entire networks of caves. On Sunday, B-1 and B-52 bombers pounded the high ground relentlessly. Yet still the enemy fought, to increasingly deadly effect. At around 3am on Monday, two twin-rotor MH-47 Chinook helicopters flew low into the mountains to drop off special forces reconnaissance teams. As the Chinooks touched down, one of them was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade that broke hydraulic lines but apparently failed to explode. Both helicopters lifted off immediately. It was not until a few minutes later that anyone on board the damaged Chinook realised that one person was missing. It is not clear how Petty Officer Neil Roberts, a member of the US Navy Seal special forces, fell from the helicopter, but he appears to have slipped when it shuddered on the grenade’s impact. The second Chinook returned to search for him. A video recording from a surveillance drone using night lenses has confirmed that Roberts was hauled away by three Al-Qaeda fighters as soon as the Chinooks left. Commandos on the returning Chinook later recovered the body with a bullet wound. Pentagon officials believe Roberts survived the fall but was executed. Worse was to come. On a separate mission several miles away, two other Chinooks came under attack at about 6.30am. One was hit by either heavy machinegun fire or a grenade. It landed hard and 21 commandos on board poured out into a hail of Al-Qaeda and Taliban bullets. In US forces’ single most bloody encounter of the war, six commandos were killed and 11 injured as they scrambled for cover on an exposed plateau. At American military headquarters thousands of miles away, appalled officers watched live video footage from another drone as enemy forces advanced on the trapped survivors. Within minutes the US Air Force was pounding nearby mountain ridges with F-15 and F-16 fighter bombers. They were joined by AC-130 gunships carrying Gatling machineguns that can lay down a blistering curtain of fire at 1,800 rounds a minute. With the help of the gunships, the Chinook survivors held out for more than 12 hours until the enemy forces were either killed or fled and a rescue helicopter was able to land. It soon became clear that Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, and President George W Bush would not allow the punishing casualties to weaken American resolve. On Wednesday 300 additional US troops were sent to Gardez. Up to 17 more Apache and Cobra helicopters were moved to the area. One Apache survived a rocket- propelled grenade that bounced off its nose cone without exploding. For some US officials last week’s casualties, while tragic, gave America the chance to prove it could “suck up pain” and still continue the fight. By Thursday Major General Franklin “Buster” Hagenbeck, commanding the Gardez campaign, was able to boast that his forces had killed “several hundred” Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters. Snow storms and high winds have temporarily put paid to Hagenbeck’s momentum. The offensive remained stalled yesterday, but 2,000 Afghan troops were preparing for a final assault this week. Meanwhile, American estimates of the number of enemy fighters had shot up from 150 to about 700 men, half of whom it claimed to have killed. Exactly why so large and well-armed an Al-Qaeda force was allowed to gather has not been fully explained. General Richard Myers, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, said his staff had been following the enemy build-up in the area, “allowing it to develop until we thought it was the right time to strike”.
There is widespread suspicion in Gardez that the Americans may have been betrayed by Afghans they consider their allies. Wary of political intrigues that no outsider can fathom, Brown and his US military colleagues recruited fighters from outside Gardez in the hope that they would have no ties to local Al-Qaeda or Taliban sympathisers. The ambush has underlined the fragility of Washington’s intelligence and the vulnerability of its troops. “The Americans have come several times to see us, asking about a particular commander,” said Ziaratgul Mangal, the deputy chief of intelligence in Gardez. “They are worried about who they are recruiting, and at least once I told them personally I thought one of their commanders is working with the other side.” In one sense the Pentagon is suffering from its own good fortune. The speed with which the Taliban collapsed after the battle of Mazar-i-Sharif last year gave many Americans the impression that the only outstanding tasks were to capture Bin Laden, declare victory and go home. All that has now changed. Rumsfeld acknowledged that the battle of Gardez “will not be the last” major military engagement of the war. Reports in Washington said intercepted e-mail traffic indicated that Al-Qaeda elements were also trying to regroup in border areas inside Pakistan. Yet the longer American soldiers remain reliant on scheming Afghan warlords, the greater the danger of further tragedy. “The area inside Afghanistan continues to be very messy,” Franks said. He is not the first American commander to find himself presiding over a bloody mess.
One of the few statements of opinion in this article with which I agree.
“The area inside Afghanistan continues to be very messy,” Franks said. He is not the first American commander to find himself presiding over a bloody mess.
Oh, gag me. What a bloody "Euro."
Hey, Limey, the 10th and 101st have just about finished mopping up. Better hurry or you'll miss whatever "writhing" remains to be done (and note that the great preponderance of "writhing" has been on the part of wounded and dying murderers, aka Taliban/al-Qaeda. Their martyrdom, sponsored by the Light-Fighers and "Death From Above").
The ONLY people who thought we were done in Afghanistan were the PRESS, who don't listen to anything except their own lies.
I'm inrtuged buy this statment “suck up pain” and still continue the fight.
Very little pain indeed. At the begining of the war the president was prparing the US public for lots of casualies. I think that's because they thought that it might be necessary to use US forces in conjunction with mercinaries to overthrow the Taliban.
8 deaths is nothing. If it were 80 in this engagment or 800 so far in the entire war then we could say that we were sucking up pain and continuing to fight. We are not yet sucking up pain.
Our biggest mistake. The only mistake that I can think of in this war is that we have paid fortunes to mercinaries to do our fighting for us. They let the enemy go over and over again. We must have a huge presence on the ground if not to do the majority of the fighting then to at least prevent our mercinaries form letting the enemy go.
It's a little to late for that though isn't it ? the enemy has been let go. Now a few of them have come back to test us. It looks like we're passing the test so far.
Notice also how the Euros can always find a friendly native (who no doubt disappears into the desert once the story is published) who tells them JUST what they want to hear. How convenient.
--Boris
If we fought like they do, we'd go to those villages where they left their families, capture them, and tell the fighters to surrender or we'd kill them. And follow through.
They live on another planet, do they think that the US has invulnerable supermen that can not be killed?
They said we could not fight a war in the mountains at this time of year... BLAH, BLAH, BLAH. The divisions being used can fight in ANY climate. I guarantee that the 10th mountain division can beat ANY force that is up in the mountains.
The lack of military knowledge among the Journalists covering this war is truly astounding. Like I always say, you have to work very hard to be that stupid!
I strongly disagree!
I think that it comes naturally for some journalists.
I'd rather get good news from a source that hates the US than a source that likes the war on terror.
And if you think it gags YOU, imagine how terrible it must be for the author of this article to have to write about America's undeniable success (even if he wants to pretend we're losing, it's still got to be painful).
And of military history. One week goes by, and they moan that this cave combat is going to be endless. It took the 163rd almost two months to clear the Japs out of the caves on Biak. And it took us 5 months to secure Iwo Jima, another island where cave fighting was prominent. No high altitudes, no freezing weather, and it took 5 months. Years after, people were finding Japanese soldiers in these caves. I used to think public school teachers were the stupidest people alive, but I'm going to have to give the honors to these reporters.
The issue here is that the real culprits are the Middle East countries particularly Saudi Arabia and Pakistan but Afghanistan and Iraq seems to be more correct to attack.
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