Posted on 03/18/2002 2:24:15 PM PST by Diogenesis
GOTTA SEE THIS -- OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM 3/18/02
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REPORT FROM THEATRE 1 - AFGHANISTAN
DOD Update on Anacaonda and two Strike Videos -US forces deliver justice to al Qaeda - Cave Entrance, Fleeing Terrorists
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Anaconda Over, but Operations Continue in Afghanistan
Anaconda Over, but Operations Continue in Afghanistan
By Jim Garamone American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, March 18, 2002 -- Operation Anaconda is officially over, but skirmishes near Gardez and west of Kandahar prove the Defense
Department's premise that actions in Afghanistan are not complete.
Air Force Brig. Gen. John Rosa, Joint Staff spokesman, put it simply during a press conference March 18: "Operation Anaconda is over, but Operation
Enduring Freedom continues."
Rosa said teams remain in the Operation Anaconda area looking for any remaining Taliban and al Qaeda. U.S., Afghan and coalition forces have searched
more than 30 caves in the region so far and have found weapons, ammunition and documents.
On Sunday a patrol observed three vehicles about 45 miles southwest of Gardez, Rosa said. After watching them for a time, commanders called in
helicopters to stop the convoy. When their warning shots were met with return fire, the aircraft destroyed the vehicles. In the firefight, 16 people in the
convoy were killed, one wounded and one detained. There were no U.S. casualties.
"Numerous weapons, ammunition, rocket-propelled grenades were found in these vehicles," Rosa said.
A fourth car, just a bit separated from the other three, was stopped, found to contain a family and let go, he said.
U.S. forces also conducted a "site exploitation" of a compound in the vicinity of Kandahar, he said. Forces found a large cache of weapons and ammunition
in the compound. They detained 31 people.
Operation Anaconda was important because it showed al Qaeda and Taliban that the United States was serious, "that our troops are up to the task," Rosa
said. "And we know we accomplished quite a bit." He said the U.S. Central Command does not see large groups of al Qaeda or Taliban leaving the
Operation Anaconda area.
Neither Rosa nor Pentagon spokeswoman Torie Clarke wanted to quantify the number of al Qaeda and Taliban killed in Operation Anaconda. Clarke said
conditions in the area make it very difficult to get exact numbers.
She did say that Operation Anaconda had effects on the al Qaeda. "We have debilitated and degraded to a certain extent the al Qaeda network," she said. The
operation has clearly made it more difficult for al Qaeda to work inside Afghanistan and communicate with members outside the country, Clarke said.
Anaconda Ending; Defense Looks at Combat Air Patrols
WASHINGTON, March 18, 2002 -- Operation Anaconda will end today, Pentagon spokeswoman Torie Clarke told reporters here this morning.
Calling the operation south of Gardez, Afghanistan, very successful, Clarke said the end of Anaconda does not mean combat in Afghanistan is over. She said
U.S. officials fully expect to find other pockets of al Qaeda or Taliban resistance and that there will be other firefights.
The operation was designed to find and root out a relatively large pocket of al Qaeda and Taliban fighters. U.S., Afghan and coalition troops have searched
the caves in the area and found caches of ammunition and arms. Like other operations, Anaconda also surfaced intelligence, documents and information that
may be useful in future operations and in preventing future terrorist attacks, Clarke said.
She said as tight as Anaconda's coils were that a small number of al Qaeda and Taliban probably managed to escape. "It's quite probable, given the very
porous border, that some may have escaped across, but if they have it's been in the ones and twos," she said. "We have not seen nor do we have evidence that
there were any large numbers."
Clarke turned the conversation with reporters to domestic combat air patrols that have been flown over major U.S. cities since Sept. 11. She said defense
officials are looking at a plan that will employ a mix of steady patrols, intermittent patrols and different levels of strip alerts.
"It will be a very fluid mix that we can and will adjust as the threat conditions demand," she said. She said President Bush has been briefed on the proposal.
North American Aerospace Defense Command officials said the current rate of combat air patrols are not needed for the threat situation that exists today.
They also said increased operations and personnel tempos are wearing out people and planes.
From the DoD News Briefing, Monday, 18 Mar 2002 - 1:00 pm
Fleeing al Qaeda forces (mpg 4.4 MB)
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END OF TRANSMISSION 3/18/02 .......... K
Seems to me to be a great exercise of discipline for them not to disseminate numbers they believe to be the case for public consumption when they can't verify absolutely the information.
And it's funny how those numbers converge (not just during Viet Nam, btw, but many wars before and since). In other words, when side A reports 1000 enemy dead in some given battle, invariably side B will report about 10 of their men died, while the rule of thumb (applied to either figure) will tell you that in reality the number was about 100.
There are good reasons for fiddling with the battlefield data. For instance, overreporting enemy dead saps enemy morale and boosts your own, etc.
'Course, I don't know if that trick is going to hold during this war -- which seems to be a whole different ballgame, what with huge cave complexes, smart thermobaric bunker busters that can turn 1000 bodies to dust in an instant, etc. -- but it should be very interesting to keep it in mind as things progress.
Bump.
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