Posted on 08/27/2002 9:25:47 AM PDT by Diogenesis
GOTTA SEE THIS - War for Enduring Freedom 8/28/02
Kabul, Kandahar, Narizah, Searching for weapons,
US SF, B-Team, 82nd Airborne, Operation Mountain Sweep
===================== Kabul ===================
In Kabul, at the market.
Spices for sale, and water bottled in red. 
===================== Operation Mountain Sweep =====================
From Kandahar and Kabul, to Afghan villages in search of weapons.
US Special Forces, the B-Team and the 82nd Airborne search out from Kabul
and Kandahar, including on Operation Mountain Sweep.
In Narizah, 86 miles east of Kabul, Al Qaeda are found.
An attack is planned. 
===================== Narizah ===================
Suspected Al Qaeda are surrounded.
120mm illumination mortars light up the night.
At the Narizah village,
those surrounded finally agree to surrender land mines and weapons.
The search begins.
Weapons found, and seized. 
===================== Kabul ===================
In Kabul, the suburbs.
In Kabul, the pharmacy, site of minor damage from a tiny garbage can explosion on 8/25.
===================== Why we are there =====================
END OF TRANSMISSION 8/28/02 .......... K
NO QUESTION ABOUT IT.
Let me see the debrief or some info this particular mission.
???
What's going on there in the background? How much for one of those spices?
Where's the DEA when you need'em?
I can't find that. I see a lot of 'em wearing kneepads. Which picture are you talking about?
Also, a quick bump for the mention of mortars (I'm a former 11C)! Good to see they're getting some work. Mortar illumination is the brightest on the battlefield- High Angle Hell! Hoo-ah!
Thanks for the ping.
That's what real men fighting for freedom look like!
5.56mm
I think you gals might enjoy the A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day thread, then!
Those guys are a bad bunch of dudes! Rock on, troops!
BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan -- The U.S. military said on Friday U.S.-led coalition forces combing Afghanistan for remnants of the deposed Taliban regime and their al-Qaeda allies have uncovered weapons and ammunition caches and enough suspected Taliban documents to fill a trailer.
The operation, called Mountain Sweep, began in earnest Sunday throughout the country, including eastern provinces near the border with Pakistan, where an undetermined number of Taliban and al-Qaeda fled following the advance of U.S.-backed opposition forces late last year and the positioning of U.S. troops in the country.
U.S. Army Col. Roger King said captured equipment included a Soviet-made T-55 tank and a BTR-60 armored personnel carrier in a cave in Sobol Province.
The tank and APB were in "fair condition" and indicated they had been used within the past six months.
Munitions found with them by Special Operations Forces were "determined to be unstable and were destroyed."
Caches found elsewhere included hundreds of mortar rounds and machinegun ammunition is the Zormat region of southeastern Afghanistan and 1400 rockets - in addition to mines and recoilless rifles - near Kandahar.
Small arms ammunition has also been found, he said.
Suspected documents were uncovered in the Kandahar area Thursday. King said the amount of documents were a "trailer-full, and were turned over to intelligence for assessment.
No Pitched Battles
"There really hasn't been significant contact [with the enemy]," King said. "We really hadn't had any pitched battles at this point."
Nevertheless, he said, if the presence of coalition forces in the areas being swept force Taliban and al-Qaeda remnants to move out, "it is a success."
The military has not yet disclosed the number of U.S., coalition and Afghan troops that took part in Operation Mountain Sweep. King said it was a "substantial force," comparable to Operation Anaconda in early March, in which several thousand U.S. troops engaged a massed enemy force in the snow-covered Shahikot Mountains.
That was the last major battle of Operation Enduring Freedom, the military response to the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington attributed to al-Qaeda, which enjoyed Afghan sanctuary.
Since March, clashes have mainly consisted of occasional rocket attacks on U.S. positions in the country and occasional sniping.
King said Operation Mountain Sweep, which involves the 82nd Airborne from Fort Bragg, N.C., was an ongoing operation.
The last major operation was Mountain Lion in April, when units of the 101st Airborne scoured the Zawahkili cave complex near the Pakistan border, seizing weapons and documents and destroying hiding places.
King on Friday said the arms and munitions caches uncovered so far were an "eclectic mix," with some caches possibly dating back to Afghanistan's guerrilla war against Soviet occupation forces in the 1980s. Others were of more recent vintage.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/8/23/63538.shtml
Army Commander: Al Qaeda May Have Been Warned Before Operation
ZORMAT, Afghanistan — The commander of a U.S. military operation in search of Al Qaeda and Taliban fugitives said hostile forces appeared to have been tipped off that American troops were coming.
Operation Mountain Sweep, described as the biggest in five months, ended Sunday in southeastern Afghanistan with U.S. and coalition troops detaining nine people, seizing a ton of weapons and ammunition but failing to engage any sizable Al Qaeda or Taliban units in combat.
"It was clear to me there was advance warning at each of the sites we went to," Col. James Huggins, commander of the 3rd Brigade Task Force of the 82nd Airborne Division, told pool reporters.
Huggins did not speculate about how Taliban and Al Qaeda forces may have received advance warning of the operation. U.S. forces often coordinate with Afghan warlords and government units which are supposed to know the area of operations better.
However, some villages were empty when U.S. troops arrived. In some cases, the troops expected to meet resistance based on intelligence information but were welcomed by village elders.
On Aug. 19, troops entered a town where intelligence reports indicated there was a large cache of weapons guarded by several Chechen Al Qaeda fighters. Some weapons, including two Soviet armored vehicles and a 14.5 mm machine gun, were found, but there was no sign of Al Qaeda fighters.
That was frustrating for soldiers primed for combat.
"When we hit the ground, we were ready," said Sgt. 1st Class Charles McManus. "I'm not trying to be a warmonger or anything, but when you prep so much, it's hard to come up with a dry hole."
The eight-day Operation Mountain Sweep took place in the provinces of Khost and Paktia, a rugged area with a large number of Taliban and Al Qaeda sympathizers. One of the Taliban commanders, Saif Rahman Mansour, is from a prominent local family, and his late father was revered as a hero of the war against the Soviets in the 1980s.
Despite the lack of contact, Lt. Col. Martin Schweitzer, a battalion commander, said the operation succeeded in driving Al Qaeda and Taliban fugitives deeper into the mountains.
"These dry holes may look dry, but they are really not because we are pushing Al Qaeda to the east," he said. "It is a little frustrating not to find the big pockets of resistance we had hoped to find, but in the bigger strategy, it will all come together."
Zormat is located near the scene of fighting in March between coalition forces and Taliban and Al Qaeda combatants during Operation Anaconda, the biggest U.S. offensive group operation of the Afghan war.
At the time, U.S. officials said Taliban and Al Qaeda forces had been driven from the area and large numbers of them killed. The fact that coalition troops are still operating in the area suggests, however, that many Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters may have slipped back into the rugged territory.
More than 2,000 U.S. aviation and ground forces conducted five missions, covering 150 square kilometers (58 square miles) of mountainous terrain near the border with Pakistan.
There were no American casualties during the operation. Reports from the field said two enemy attackers were killed and eight others wounded in an ambush near the Pakistani border.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,61262,00.html
Nevertheless...a success.
Look what FOB Uncle Walter had to say, quoted in Liz Smith's column in today's NY Post:
'I AM very upset that the Defense Department and the administration have not provided the facilities for the American people to know what their troops are doing in Afghanistan. It's been a total news blackout. We are not allowed to accompany troops into action, and this is a denial of the free speech and free press to which we're entitled - particularly when it's a matter of reporting our boys and girls going into action, endangering their lives to protect our democracy. We are entitled to know what they're putting up with and how they are performing."
Cronkite told us that if he were back in the saddle, "I would do what I'm surprised the rest of the press is not doing, I would not let a day go by without my complaints that we were being denied the right to cover the story" [in Afghanistan].
His so-called "right to cover the story" could jeopardize the lives of American soldiers. I'm guessing he couldn't care less.
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