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Posted on 03/17/2002 9:01:39 AM PST by truthandlife
US troops dispatched to search out and destroy caves used by diehard al-Qaeda and Taliban forces in eastern Afghanistan have described how the extremists had erected a "castle" in their last-known stronghold.
Soldiers serving with the 10th mountain division said they had destroyed foxholes which could have housed "platoon-sized" units and contained major amounts of ammunition.
The unit was tasked with investigating the enemy defences on the peak of the Arma mountains around Shahi Kot valley in Paktia province.
They came across manned firing positions, bunkers and a large cave complex with a huge central chamber big enough to house around 80 fighters.
After wiping out the enemy resistance in one bunker they proceeded to blow up the rest of the complex. The side of the mountain then collapsed, thwarting any attempt to thoroughly examine the stronghold.
Sergeant Jonathan Wightman said the first bunker was "like a goddamned castle. It was the best bunker I have ever seen".
"We sprayed the whole thing and it did not even dint. We did not expect to see anything like that."
His colleague, Staff Sergeant Del Rodriguez, said: "It looked like they had been doing operations out of it (the bunker) for a while.
"I think they had had a platoon-sized element up there. Our job was to take out what we saw.
"We had support by fire light up the area which we wanted to take out and when we flanked to the right we came up on top of it and we came up on a huge firing position.
"The intelligence that we had was that the positions had been pounded and pounded and pounded (by air raids) but the two guys we found there looked like they were in the rebuilding stage."
Staff sergeant Lonnie Schultz said that two Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters were in the cave although one appeared to have been recently killed.
"He (Rodriguez) said 'Hey there's something right there' and soon as we crested the hill he was there so him and I both plugged him," said Schultz.
"It was not a pleasurable experience or something I would want to do again but we have to do what we have to do.
"I pushed forward from there and I came across the second guy. He looked like he was dead already but I was not going to take any chances."
Schultz shot the second fighter until he was sure he was dead.
"After that we bounced from firing positions to firing positions."
They then threw grenades into observation and ventilation holes around the bunker down which could be seen the central chamber.
"We fragged (threw fragmentable grenades in) all the litle spider holes. We threw a 10 pound (4.54 kg) satchel charge in there and it collapsed most of it.
"The secondary explosions were going off inside so there was ammunition of some kind down there (in the main chamber).
"The whole thing went like a battle drill. It was just perfect," said Wightman.
Schultz, describing the strength of the bunker, said they had fired an AT4 anti-tank missile at the position but it "bounced right off it".
The soldiers said the position was made of solid rock, boulders and wood over two levels with the firing positions and bunkers on one level and the main entrance to a living area on another level.
The firing position had been expertly established, offering views of both the valley and the sky and would have been virtually impossible to take by ground assaults if they had been fully manned.
They said every time they threw explosives down one of the holes they would see smoke coming from other holes all over the mountains.
"There was a big cave and bunker complex underneath. Whenever we dropped a grenade we would see smoke come out from all over the hills," said Rodriguez.
"We fragged the entrance and it collapsed. After we had fragged it so much and moved across (the top), it just started to collapse so we could not go inside."
The soldiers described the area as being littered with US cluster bombs and unexploded ordnance, adding to the dangers faced by troops as they searched the peak.
They said some of the men in their unit later reported seeing individuals running down the mountains and they also heard coalition Afghan soldiers on the valley floor engage in a firefight against fleeing enemy fighters.
The USAF is building a _30,000 lb_ guided bomb for the B2. Imagine a hollow, pointed, explosive filled, depleted uranium penetrator the length of a telephone pole and dropped from 40,000 feet.
I understand a total of three are in rush production and they all have Saddam Hussein's picture on the side.
Yup. I'd have coalition forces hang around long enough to starve the the camel-jockies to death.
Apparently, the bunker was not that effective!
I hate to be such a nitpicker, but this pretentious crap is phony journalism. Can't these ignoramuses look in the ---ing dictionary or thesaurus for a WORD?? A NOUN IS NOT A VERB. < /rant>
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