Posted on 08/29/2003 7:08:20 AM PDT by TastyManatees
U.S. bombs suspected Taliban forces
Follows intense fighting in Afghanistan this week
Associated Press
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - U.S. fighter jets and helicopters bombed suspected Taliban hideouts yesterday in Afghanistan's rugged southern mountains after intense battles between the insurgents and Afghan troops, officials said.
The troops were trying to flush out the Taliban from Zabul province when the guerrillas attacked with heavy machine guns in the Chinaran mountains, Haji Granai, an Afghan military commander, told the Associated Press by satellite telephone from Chinaran.
Khalil Hotak, head of intelligence in Zabul, said fighting lasted four hours with the Taliban guerrillas entrenched in a gorge, making it difficult for the Afghan and coalition forces to move against them.
Five Taliban bodies were found in a bunker, and four Afghan soldiers were wounded, he said.
Two U.S. bombers and two helicopters helped, Granai said as explosions boomed in the background.
There was no independent confirmation of the account, and no comment from the U.S. military.
This week, Zabul's governor, Hafizullah Hashami, said about 40 Taliban and three Afghan soldiers were killed in the continuing operation to clear guerrillas from the province.
Hotak said troops were also searching village homes. He said the insurgents were led by Mullah Arif, who is in contact with the Taliban's fugitive chief, Mullah Mohammed Omar. He gave no evidence to back his claim, saying only that he had intelligence information.
(Excerpt) Read more at sunspot.net ...
Norweigan television has reported Mullah Omar dead in the fighting, but this is unconfrimed as of yet, and I am loathe to put too much faith in such a rumor, given that the media has reported this man dead a number of times. However, our forces have steadily progressed up their chain of command and the new offensive looks like they are within striking distance of the top. Pardon me for getting so excited, but from this distance it looks like a last stand by desperate men.
Tasty Manatees
Boy, we DO have smart bombs. But the question remains, what did the bombs know, and when did they know it?
Let's hope when they dig through the debris, they find O'Somas camel driving licence in it.
That's okay.
Opps. They must have had the wrong decade.
By NOOR KHAN
The Associated Press
QALAT, Afghanistan (AP) -- Afghan soldiers were waging a fierce battle with entrenched Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan after a night of heavy U.S. bombing that left many Taliban dead, an Afghan intelligence chief said Friday.
The battle -- one of the most intense in months -- comes after four days of fighting in the area, according to Afghan officials. The U.S. bombardment also appeared to be one of the Americans' larger-scale operations, though the U.S. military frequently joins its Afghan allies in attempting to root out Taliban fighters.
U.S. warplanes began bombing two suspected Taliban positions in the Chinaran and Larzab mountains of Dai Chupan district in southern Zabul province late Thursday, provincial intelligence chief Khalil Hotak told The Associated Press.
The bombing ended at about 4 a.m., and some 500 local Afghan soldiers moved in on the Taliban fighters. The Taliban had taken up fortified positions in a deep mountain gorge and along a stream that runs through the area, Hotak said in a command center set up in Qalat, about 45 miles south of the fighting.
It was impossible to know the exact number of Taliban killed in the bombing and subsequent fighting, but Hotak said the number of fighters killed could be as high as 35. The U.S. military could not immediately be reached for comment.
"The fighting was intense and we have inflicted heavy damage on the Taliban," Hotak said. "Our forces counted 35 Taliban bodies."
As he spoke, Hotak received calls from commanders at the scene and barked back orders for the ongoing fighting.
"We get information when the Taliban change their positions. Then we give this information to our commanders," he said. Hotak said the largest suspected Taliban base was near a part of the mountain range called Hazar Buz, about four miles from the latest ground fighting.
The fighting was still going on by midmorning Friday, Hotak said. He said his forces believe hundreds of Taliban have taken up positions in the area, with at least 15 hideouts. Hotak said he had no word yet on fresh casualties among the Afghan soldiers. Four Afghan soldiers were wounded in fighting Thursday.
Zabul has seen heavy fighting this week. The province's governor, Hafizullah Hashami, said even before the most recent fighting that about 40 Taliban had been killed in an ongoing operation to clear out guerrillas hiding in the mountainous area.
Afghan officials say they believe at least two prominent Taliban commanders, Mullah Dadullah and Mullah Shafiq, were leading the fighting in the area.
Hotak also named Mullah Abdul Qahar as one of the commanders leading the Taliban fighters. A native of Zabul, Qahar was a senior Taliban commander in the province before the militia was ousted in late 2001 by a U.S.-led coalition, according to Hotak.
Haji Granai, an Afghan military commander, told AP that at least two U.S. bombers and two helicopters helped in the operation, and Hotak said 20 American troops and 12 military vehicles were on the ground to aid the Afghan forces.
Two fighters arrested in the area two days ago told investigators they were recruited by the Taliban and fighters loyal to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. They said they received 38,000 Pakistani rupees -- about $650 -- from the two groups, Hotak said.
A former prime minister who has since fallen into disfavor, Hekmatyar has so far eluded U.S. efforts to arrest or kill him. The renegade warlord has issued calls for a jihad, or holy war, against foreign troops in Afghanistan.
In other clashes, a group of suspected Taliban fighters attacked an Afghan checkpoint late Thursday in Spinboldak, about 130 miles southwest of the fighting in Zabul province.
Three Afghan soldiers were killed in the attack, said Fazluddin Agha, the district police chief. He said two Taliban fighters were wounded in the exchange of fire.
It's like hunting ground hogs. They can go in one whole, and still come out another.
They can't use it against Bush, so it's a non-event.
Personally, I like it when the press butts out. We get more Taliban that way. Otherwise, the left wing minions would be out there as human (debatable) shields again in full costume, for the sake of the environment, of course.
Is that a whole hole, or just a whole? ;-)
An underground sewer system comes to mind.
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