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U.S. and Afghan forces seize explosives in anti-Taliban ops

Soldiers with the 10th Mountain Division turn to avoid flying debris as a CH-47 Chinook lands to take them back to Kandahar Army Air Field, Afghanistan, Sept. 4, 2003. The 10th MD had been searching for Taliban and illegal weapons caches in the Daychopan Province, in support of Operation Mountain Viper.
DoD photo by Staff Sgt. Kyle Davis, U.S. Army.

2003/9/14
KABUL, Afghanistan, AP

U.S.-led coalition forces claimed success Saturday in an operation aimed at rooting out Taliban and al-Qaida insurgents in southeastern Afghanistan, saying they had captured tons of explosives and unearthed secret caves. Col. Rodney Davis, the U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan, said Operation Warrior Sweep, which began July 20, was completed this week. It included counterinsurgency actions along a key highway between the southeastern towns of Khost and Gardez and in the rugged Shai Kowt mountains and Gayan Valley, he said.

Coalition forces comprised of U.S., Italian and Romanian soldiers and Afghan military discovered several secret caves and caches "containing more that 20,000 pieces of ordnance used by rebels," Davis said.

"Coalition ordnance disposal experts destroyed more than 70,000 pounds (31,800 kilograms) of explosive ordnance, and ammunition that could be reused was collected and given to the Afghan National Army," he said in a statement from Bagram Air Base, the coalition's headquarters north of the capital, Kabul.

Guerrillas of the former ruling Taliban and al-Qaida have stepped up attacks against Afghan soldiers, government officials and humanitarian workers in recent months in the east and south — the heartland of the hardline Islamic regime before its ouster by U.S.-led forces in late 2001.

More than 100 Taliban were killed earlier this month in the Dai Chupan mountains, the scene of nine days of heavy ground fighting and bombing in southern Zabul province, dubbed Operation Mountain Viper. That operation is still in progress, although the heavy fighting has apparently subsided.

Davis said that in Warrior Sweep, U.S. and Afghan soldiers located and secured a cave complex along the Gardez-Khost road on July 30, after following a foot trail into hills that ended at a rock face.

When soldiers started digging they discovered a covered entrance into a cave complex that "consisted of six tunnels filled with Russian, Chinese and Pakistani made ordnance."

"Coalition explosive ordnance disposal teams destroyed the estimated 40,000 pounds (18,200 kilograms) of ordnance in place," Davis said.

The hostilities in the south and east of the country have underscored the security problems faced by the administration of President Hamid Karzai that took power soon after the Taliban's ouster.

Some 11,500 coalition forces, mostly American, are hunting Taliban and al-Qaida followers in Afghanistan.

On This Day In History

Birthdates which occurred on September 15:
53 Trajan 13th Roman emperor (98-117), conqueror of Ctesiphon
1613 Francois duc de la Rochefoucald Paris France, writer (The Last of the Mohicans)
1789 James Fenimore Cooper 1st major American novelist (Prairie)
1830 Porfirio Diaz soldier, president of Mexico (1877-1911)
1857 William Howard Taft Cin, (R) 27th pres (1909-13), chief justice
1876 Bruno Walter (B.W. Schlesinger), Berlin Germany, conductor (NY Phil)
1876 Frank E Gannett Rochester, newspaper publisher (Gannett)
1881 Ettore Arco Isidoro Bugatti Milan, race car builder (Amaz Bugattis)
1889 Robert Benchley author (My 10 Years in a Quandary)
1890 Dame Agatha Christie mystery writer (Murder on the Orient Express)
1890 Frank Martin Geneva Switzerland, composer (In Terra Fax)
1894 Jean Renoir cin‚aste (Grand Illusion)
1899 Milton S Eisenhower Dwight's brother/Pennsylvania State president
1903 Roy Acuff Maynardville Tenn, country musician (Hee Haw)
1904 Tom Conway Russia, actor (Mark Saber, Betty Hutton Show)
1904 Umberto II king of Italy (1946)
1906 Kathryn Murray Jersey City NJ, dancer (Arthur Murray Dance Party)
1906 Penny Singleton Phila Pa, voice (Jane Jetsons)/actress (Blondie)
1907 Fay Wray Alberta, actress (King Kong)
1907 Jack Bailey Hampton Iowa, TV host (Queen for a Day)
1913 Henry Dreyfus Brant Montreal Canada, composer (Great American Goot)
1913 John Mitchell Nixon's attorney general who went to jail
1914 Creighton Abrams US, army general (Vietnam War)
1915 John Conte Plamer Mass, actor (Mantovani)
1916 Margaret Lockwood actress (Lady Vanishes)
1921 Jackie Cooper LA Calif, actor/director (Hennesey, People's Choice)
1924 Bobby Short singer/pianist (Carlisle Hotel)
1925 Forrest Compton Reading Pa, actor (Gomer Pyle USMC, Edge of Night)
1927 Norm Crosby Boston Mass, comedian/double talker (Liar's Club)
1928 Cannonball Adderley singer (Black Messiah, Beginnings)
1929 Murray Gell-Mann physicist who predicted quarks
1933 Henry Darrow NYC, actor (Harry O, New Dick Van Dyke Show)
1933 Rafael Frrbeck de Burgos Burgos, Spain, conductor (World of Song)
1938 Gaylord Perry baseball player (1972 AL Cy Young winner)
1940 Merlin Olsen UT, NFL tackle (Rams)/sportscaster/actor (Father Murphy)
1941 Miroslaw Hermaszewski 1st Polish space traveler (Soyuz 30)
1946 Oliver Stone NYC, director (Wall St, Good Morning Vietnam, Platoon)
1946 Tommy Lee Jones actor (Executioner's Song, Bloody Monday)
1953 Jerry Page golfer (largest PGA victory margin)
1956 Jaki Graham British personality
1956 Tawny Schneider Portland Me, newscaster (Eye on Hollywood)
1960 Scott Thompson Baker Minneapolis, actor (Gen Hosp, All My Children)
1961 Dan Marino NFL quarterback (Miami Dolphins)
1962 Wendie Jo Sperber Glendale Calif, actress (Amy-Bossom Buddies)
1967 Jerry Dixon heavy metal bassist (Warrant-Cherry Pie)
1968 Danny Nucci actor (Gabriel Ortega-Falcon Crest)
1984 Prince Henry Charles Albert David of Wales, 3rd in British sucession

Deaths which occurred on September 15:
0009 Publius Quinctilius Varus, Roman viceroy of Syria, suicide at 59
1736 Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit. He discovered that water boils at 212F and froze at 32F.
1883 Joseph Antoine Ferdinand Plateau (Mathematician)
1938 Thomas Wolfe, US writer (Enigma), dies at 62
1963 Denise McNair, eleven years old, Carole Robertson, fourteen years old, Cynthia Wesley, fourteen years Addie Mae Collins, fourteen years old, killed in bombing at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, a site of past civil rights rallies.
1963 Fred Hillebrand actor (Martin Kane), dies at 69
1978 Willy Messerschmitt, German aircraft builder, dies at 80
1979 Tommy Leonetti singer/actor (Gomer Pyle USMC), dies at 50
1981 Sara Haden actress (A Family Affair), dies at 83
1982 Sadegh Ghotbzadeh Iran's former foreign minister, executed by Iran
1983 LeRoy Prinz choreographer, dies at 88
1983 Willie Bobo jazz drummer (Cos), dies at 49
1986 Virginia Gregg actress (Little Women), dies at 69

Reported: MISSING in ACTION
1966 TICE PAUL DOUGLAS BUFFALO NY.

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

On this day...
608 St Boniface IV begins his reign as Catholic Pope
1514 Thomas Wolsey appointed archbishop of York
1588 The Spanish Armada, which attempted to invade England, is destroyed by a British fleet.
1620 Mayflower departs from Plymouth, England with 102 pilgrims
1776 British forces capture Kip's Bay Manhattan during the Revolution
1789 Dept of Foreign Affairs, renamed the Dept of State
1821 Costa Rica El Salvador Guatemala Honduras & Nicaragua gain independ
1830 1st to be run-over by a railroad train (William Huskisson, England)
1853 1st US woman ordained a minister, Antoinette Blackwell
1862 Stonewall Jackson takes Harpers Ferry
1887 Phila celebrates 100th anniversary of US Constitution
1891 The Dalton gang holds up a train and takes $2,500 at Wagoner, Oklahoma
1893 More than 100 thousand people rushed to the Cherokee Strip as a large area of the Indian Territory - now known as Oklahoma - was opened to homesteaders.
1894 Japan defeats China in Battle of Ping Yang
1898 National Afro-American Council forms in Rochester NY
1904 Wilbur Wright makes his 1st airplane flight
1912 Red Sox pitcher Joe Wood ties then record of 16 straight wins
1912 War between Turkey & Montenegro breaks out in Albania
1913 1st US milch goat show held, Rochester, NY
1914 Battle of Aisne begins between Germans & French during WW I
1915 Boston Braves beat St Louis Cards 20-1
1916 1st tank used in war, "Little Willies" at Battle of Flors, France
1917 Russia proclaimed a republic by Alexander Kerensky
1918 CH Chubb gives Stonehenge to English state
1921 WBZ-AM in Boston MA begins radio transmissions
1923 In response to terrorist activity by the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), Oklahoma was placed under martial law by Governor John Calloway Walton
1928 Scottish bacteriologist Alexander Fleming discovers, by accident, that the mold penicillin has an antibiotic effect.
1928 Cards set NL record of 18 men left on base beating Phillies 8-6
1930 1st intl bridge match is held in London. US team defeats England
1931 British naval force mutinies at Invergordon over pay
1935 Nuremberg Laws deprive German Jews of citizenship & makes the swastika the official symbol of Nazi Germany
1937 WPA extends the L-Taraval streetcar to the SF Zoo (at Sloat Blvd)
1938 British PM Chamberlain visits Hitler at Berchtesgarden
1938 John Cobb sets world auto speed record at 350.2 MPH (lasts 1 day)
1938 Only time brothers hit back-to-back HRs (Lloyd & Paul Waner, Pitts)
1940 3rd American Football League plays 1st game (Milw 14, Columbus 2)
1940 Chicago Tribune sponsors Ted Lyons Day (White Sox pitcher)
1940 Tide turns in Battle of Britain in WW II, RAF beats Luftwaffe
1941 Nazis kill 800 Jewish women at Shkudvil Lithuania
1946 Dodgers beat Cubs 2-0 in 5 inns, games called because of gnats
1947 1st 4 engine jet propelled fighter plane tested, Columbus, Oh
1947 Yanks clinch pennant #15
1948 F-86 Sabre sets world aircraft speed record of 1080 kph
1948 WHN-AM in New York City changes call letters to WMGM
1949 The Lone Ranger premiers on ABC-TV
1950 During Korean conflict, UN forces land at Inchon in the south
1950 Longest game in Phila's Shribe Park, Phils beat Reds 8-7 in 19
1950 Yankee Johnny Mize hits 3 homers (6th time he has done that)
1952 UN turns over Eritrea to Ethiopia
1953 Boxing's NBA adopts 10-pt-must-scoring-system (10 pts to round winner)
1957 "Bachelor Father" with John Forsythe premiers
1957 SF Seals (Pacific Coast League) play their last game
1958 48 die in a train crash in Elizabethport NJ
1958 Commuter train crashes through drawbridge, killing 48 (Newark NJ)
1959 Soviet Premier Khrushchev arrives in US to begin a 13-day visit
1961 Hurricane Carla strikes Texas with winds of 175 mph
1962 Australia's 1st entry in America's Cup yacht race (US wins)
1962 KC A's Bill Fischer sets record of 69 1/3 innings without a walk
1963 4 children killed in bombing of a black Baptist church in Birmingham
1963 SF Giants play outfield of Felipe, Matty & Jesus Alou
1965 "Lost in Space" premiers
1966 Gemini XI returns to Earth
1968 "Barbra Streisand: A Happening in Central Park" Show on CBS TV
1968 Launch of Zond 5, the 1st lunar flyaround with Earth reentry. Probable test flight for a manned fly-around (scooped by Apollo 8)
1969 Phillies Steve Carlton sets record by stiking out 19 NY Mets in a game
1970 Decca awards Bing Crosby a 2nd platinum disc for selling 300 million
1971 1st broadcast of "Columbo" on NBC-TV
1971 The environmental group Greenpeace is founded.
1973 "Star Trek-Animated" premiers on TV
1974 President Ford offered conditional amnesty to Vietnam draft evaders.
1976 Soyuz 22 carries 2 cosmonauts into Earth orbit for 8 days
1978 Muhammad Ali beats WBA heavyweight champion Leon Spinks
1978 Yanks beat Boston 4-0, Guidry wins # 22, Yanks lead 2« games
1979 Red Sox Bob Watson is 1st to hit for the cycle in AL & NL (Astros)
1980 Paul McCartney releases "Temporary Secretary"
1981 US Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approves Sandra Day O'Connor
1982 1st issue of "USA Today" published by Gannett Co Inc
1982 Israeli forces began pouring into west Beirut
1984 Morocco Showcase opens
1985 European team beats US team for golf's Ryders Cup (1st since 1957)
1988 Lillehammer, Norway upsets Anchorage to host 1994 Winter olympics
1990 Florida lottery goes over $100,000,000
1990 France announce it will send 4,000 troops to the Persian Gulf
1991 "The Party Machine with Nia Peeples" final show
1991 NBA star Magic Johnson marries Earletha "Cookie" Kelly
1991 SD State freshman Marshall Faulk sets NCAA rushing record of 386 yds
1994 Moslem fundamentalists kidnap & behead 16 citizens in Algeria

Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

Costa Rica, El Salv, Guatemala, Honduras & Nicaragua : Ind Day (1821)
Iran : Imama Ja'afar Sadeq's Death
Japan : Respect for the Aged Day
UK : Battle of Britain Day (1940)
Hispanics : National Hispanic Heritage Week (Sunday)
UN observance : Intl Day of Peace (Tuesday)
Mexico : Independence Day
Old Peoples's Day.
USA : Felt Hat Day, when men of fashion put away their straw hats
USA : Quarterly Income Tax Due.
National Spina Bifida Awareness Month

Religious Observances
RC : Memorial of 7 Sorrows of Mary
Moslem : Id Al-Fitr

Religious History
1648 The Larger and the Shorter Catechisms -- both prepared by the Westminster Assembly the previous year -- were approved by the British Parliament. These two documents have been in regular use among various Presbyterians, Congregationalists and Baptists ever since.
1770 English founder of Methodism John Wesley wrote in a letter: 'To use the grace given is the certain way to obtain more grace. To use all the faith you have will bring an increase of faith.'
1853 In her home state of New York, Antoinette L. Brown, 28, became pastor of the Congregational church in South Butler -- making her the first woman to be formally ordained to the pastorate in the United States.
1920 Pope Benedict XV published the encyclical "Spiritus paraclitus," which restated the Catholic position on Scripture: '...the Bible, composed by men inspired of the Holy Ghost, has God himself as its principal author, the individual authors constituted as his live instruments. Their activity, however, ought not be described as automatic writing.'
1966 The American Bible Society published the New Testament of its "Today's English Version" (TEV), otherwise known as "Good News for Modern Man." It marked the end of a two-year effort led by chief translator, Robert G. Bratcher. (The complete Good News Bible was published in 1976.)

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

Thought for the day :
"Misery loves company, but company does not reciprocate."

You might be out of touch with reality if...
You see your cat's lips move and you're positive that she's trying to communicate with you.

Murphys Law of the day...(Waddell's Law of Equipment Failure)
A component's degree of reliability is directly proportional to its ease of accessibility

Cliff Clavin says, it's a little known fact that...
Van Camp's Pork and Beans were a staple food for Union soldiers in the Civil War.