US gets ready to dig in for ground action

29 Oct, 2001 09:18 AM5 mins to read

WASHINGTON - The United States military could soon set up a forward base inside Afghanistan to support the operation of hundreds of American commandos.

Quoting a senior defence source, USA Today said this base would be manned by up to 600 soldiers, providing security, food, medical care and evacuation support for 200 to 300 commandos.

The source suggested the base would be set up in northern Afghanistan to boost the Northern Alliance in its efforts to capture the strategic town of Mazar-i-Sharif.

The newspaper said the base could be employed to launch helicopter strikes against Taleban forces, as well as summon Navy fighter jets and AC-130 gunships.

Apart from one confirmed special forces raid, the US campaign in Afghanistan has depended on bombing from the air. Military analysts believe US soldiers inside Afghanistan will be needed to help root out terrorist Osama bin Laden and members of his al Qaeda network.

US Senator and former presidential candidate John McCain said yesterday that America must unleash "all the might of US military power", including large numbers of ground troops, to prevail in Afghanistan.

The Government said the Taleban was being weakened, but warned Americans must be prepared for a drawn-out conflict.

As the debate over military strikes intensified in Washington, US attacks on the Afghan capital of Kabul killed at least 13 civilians, witnesses there said, and warplanes returned for a second wave of attacks late in the day. American bombs reportedly pounded targets in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, the Taleban stronghold of Kandahar in the south, Herat in the west and Jalalabad in the east.

Former Vietnam War hero McCain, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called for a "very, very significant" force able to capture and hold territory. "It's going to take a very big effort and probably casualties will be involved and it won't be accomplished through air power alone."

Bush's chief of staff, Andrew Card, and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld were noncommittal about significant ground forces.

Considerations such as civilian deaths and the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins in mid-November, must be "secondary to the job at hand, which is to wipe out nests of terrorism", McCain said.

Card defended the intensity of the military attacks by the US and Britain. "We're not holding back. We'll do what we have to do to win."

Rumsfeld indicated the military campaign would not stop for Ramadan, saying the Taleban themselves had fought during the religious holiday.

The Pentagon provided no new information about civilian casualties and missed targets. But officials say two C-17 transport planes dropped a further 34,000 rations in northern Afghanistan, bringing the food aid effort to 925,200 rations dropped during the three weeks of combat.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair called on Britain to "hold its nerve" over the bombing of Afghanistan after Foreign Secretary Jack Straw warned that military action could continue "indefinitely".

Downing St called for patience, and warned it would carry on for "as long as it takes", amid growing concern that public support could be falling away because of air strikes on civilian targets.

The Prime Minister's strategy received a stinging attack from Peter Kilfoyle, a former Labour Defence Minister, who called for a stop to the bombing.

He said that Blair was Bush's junior partner in a military campaign which could have damaging consequences for Britain in the long term.

"Effectively, this is an American war ... it means that decisions are made in Washington and nowhere else. It drags us in in ways which we might not wish to be dragged in if we had considered this a little more deeply."

In other news:

* US police commanders who responded to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon called for more access to intelligence gathered by US federal agents and for more training as they discussed lessons learned from the September 11 terrorist attack.

* The CIA sent a missile-armed drone to protect Afghan opposition leader Abdul Haq in his flight from the Taleban, hitting a vehicle convoy but failing to prevent Haq's capture and execution.

Rumsfeld said that Haq called for help and then received air support. "The assistance unfortunately was from the air, and he was on the ground. And, regrettably, he was killed," Rumsfeld said.

* Three British and two American Muslims, who went to Afghanistan to fight against the US, were killed in bombing of Kabul.

"All of them had gone to Afghanistan in early October to wage jihad against the unjust policies of America," said Hasan Butt, leader of Islamic group al-Muhajiroun in Lahore.

* Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz said he expected the US and Britain to launch attacks on Iraq during its "war on terrorism".

Aziz said that Washington and London wanted to use the campaign as an excuse to oust President Saddam Hussein.

* Eighteen camps either side of the border separating Pakistan and Afghanistan are now ready to accept refugees, the United Nations said.

After a massive preliminary effort, UN officials said they can cope with an influx of 150,000 Afghan refugees into Pakistan. Fifteen camps capable of taking 10,000 people each have been set up in two provinces bordering Afghanistan - Baluchistan in the southwest of the country and Northwest Frontier Province.

- AGENCIES, INDEPENDENT

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