Pilots Told to Fire at Will in Some Zones
By STEVEN LEE MYERS and THOM SHANKER
ASHINGTON, Oct. 16 — American pilots have for the first time been freed to choose their own targets and fire at will within specific zones around Taliban strongholds in Afghanistan, senior Pentagon officials said today. United States commanders warned that none of the Kabul regime's forces were immune from attack.
"We are striking Afghan Taliban military positions around Kabul, including those that protect the capital," said the director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Lieut. Gen. Gregory S. Newbold. In the north, he said, resistance fighters were drawing nearer to the strategic northeastern crossroads of Mazar-i- Sharif, which he said could fall within days if the Northern Alliance decided to press an assault.
But even as the Pentagon continued today with an intense bombardment that began on Monday with almost 100 planes striking 12 areas across the country, American bombs struck and badly damaged a compound a little more than a mile from the Kabul airport, where the International Committee of the Red Cross was storing food and shelter materials for the war-ravaged population. An Afghan guard was wounded.
The 1,000-pound bombs were dropped by a Navy F-18 jet as part of raids on a series of warehouses that the Pentagon said it thought were being used by the Taliban armed forces. "U.S. forces did not know that I.C.R.C. was using one or more of the warehouses," a Pentagon statement said. The Red Cross said each of five warehouses in its compound was marked on the roof with a large red cross. The raids occurred at about 1 p.m., in daylight, the agency said.
The establishment of specific zones of aerial attack known as kill boxes was the strongest indication to date that the Pentagon was shifting its war plan from a focus on air defense and other static targets to a more fluid campaign to hunt and destroy the military forces that officials say are maintaining the Taliban's grip on power in Afghanistan.
In these "kill boxes," which officials said were now being established in areas on the outskirts of Kabul and the Taliban headquarters Kandahar, American pilots and gunners are authorized to fire at any military target that moves.
As the strikes continued for a 10th day, the Pentagon continued its military buildup in the region. For the first time since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, the United States deployed additional forces to bases within easy striking distance of Iraq, senior military officials said.
The deployment, requested by Gen. Tommy R. Franks, the commander of American forces in the region, included 12 F-15E fighter- bombers, nearly doubling the number of strike fighters on the ground in the Persian Gulf, the officials said.
Within the Pentagon and other parts of the Bush administration, some officials have advocated expanding the war to include Iraq and possibly other countries, but the officials emphasized that, for now, the additional jets were meant as a precaution in the event President Saddam Hussein sought to take advantage of the focus on Afghanistan.
A day after some 100 fighters and bombers launched raids against a dozen targets across Afghanistan, American warplanes again struck concentrations of Taliban soldiers today, officials said.
For a second day, the Pentagon dispatched AC-130 gunships — operated by the Air Force Special Operations Command — to attack those forces. The AC-130, which can loiter over targets for hours and lay down withering fire from heavy machine guns and cannons, are ideally suited for operations within designated attack zones, the officials said.
At the Pentagon today, General Newbold said that American warplanes were striking in "a robust way" against Taliban forces, including "those that protect the capital," Kabul, and others near Mazar-i- Sharif, where rebel forces are reported to be advancing.
"The combat power of the Taliban has been eviscerated," General Newbold said.
While General Newbold portrayed the campaign so far as a success, it remained unclear how badly the airstrikes were eroding the Taliban's ability to rule. There have been reports of widespread defections from the Taliban ranks, something the Pentagon's bombing campaign is intended to encourage.
The alliance of forces opposed to the Taliban moved ever closer to Mazar-i-Sharif, reportedly closing to within 5 to 10 miles of the city itself, General Newbold and other officials said. "I would say that they're in danger of being cut off right now," General Newbold said of Taliban forces defending the city. "And I would say their positions could be in jeopardy over the next couple of days."
One Defense Department official gave credence to reports from the field that some Taliban troops are negotiating a way to leave their units. "It's the usual question of, `What's in it for me?' " the official said, adding that it is impossible to accurately estimate the number of troops that might seek to cross the Taliban line and join the opposition.
The Pentagon's campaign appeared to be moving in calibrated steps. The use of the AC-130's, which fly lower and slower than fighter jets, indicated that the Taliban's air defenses no longer posed much of a threat, clearing the way for more concentrated bombing of those forces in the field.
There were also indications that commanders had moved special operations forces into the region, positioning them for what would be still riskier operations, including raids by helicopter gunships and troops, senior Pentagon officials said.
The aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk, which left its home port in Japan last month without a full complement of fighter jets, has now been loaded with helicopter-borne special operations forces and is prepared to enter the campaign, should the order be given.
"It is ready; it is loaded," a senior officer said.
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