14 - 20 March 2002
Issue No.577
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 14 - 20 March 2002 Issue No.577 |
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Anaconda uncoils
The US incurred the highest military casualties since 11 September last week, while President Bush warned that there were "still dangerous missions ahead," reports Anayat Durrani from Washington
The United States and allied forces are engaged in "mopping up" operations in eastern Afghanistan's mountainous Shahi Khot region, south of the city of Gardez, in a bid to eliminate remaining pockets of Taliban and Al-Qa'eda forces hiding out in the area's caves. The US offensive, codenamed "Operation Anaconda," is the largest military operation the US has engaged in since the war on terrorism began in Afghanistan on 7 October, and has incurred the highest number of US casualties so far.
US, Afghan, and coalition troops began the battle against Al-Qa'eda forces entrenched high in the mountain-ranges of the Shahi-Kot area on 2 March. The US-led offensive was planned several weeks in advance with a sharp focus on a 60-square-mile area south of Gardez. Operation Anaconda was launched following intelligence reports suggesting that Al-Qa'eda and Taliban fighters were regrouping near Gardez to launch an attack on Afghanistan's interim government.
Operation Anaconda marked a new US tactic by pitting American troops, backed by about 2,000 Afghan and coalition forces and supported by air strikes, against an estimated 1,000 Taliban and Al-Qa'eda forces. The 2,000 troops make up the largest international coalition of forces to have been assembled in Afghanistan to date, with troops from Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany and Norway joining US Army and special forces soldiers as well as Afghan fighters. About half the 2,000 coalition troops taking part in the operation are Afghan forces whose mission is to block Al-Qa'eda and Taliban forces from escaping into other areas.
Al-Qa'eda forces ó described by US officials as well-armed and highly-organised ó responded to attacks with heavy machine-gun, mortar and rocket-propelled grenade fire. In the ensuing battle, hundreds of Al-Qa'eda forces were killed and several more captured, whom the US plans to interrogate. In the battle, coalition troops have come across Arab, Afghan, Chechen and Uzbek fighters, but no detainees are from the senior leadership class.
The battle of Gardez has claimed the lives of eight Americans so far; one US Special Forces soldier died in the early fighting while the other casualties occurred in two separate helicopter incidents on 4 March. One soldier died falling from a helicopter after it was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade and was making a sharp take-off to vacate the area. The other casualties happened during a battle that took place when troops emerged from a helicopter that had made an emergency landing. The battle marked the first US aircraft shot down in action and the highest number of American casualties since the beginning of the war in Afghanistan. Earlier American casualties have resulted from a series of accidental crashes, including an incident in which seven Marines were killed when a refuelling plane crashed in western Pakistan on 9 January.
Speaking at a function in Florida, President Bush paid tribute to the eight American soldiers who died in Operation Anaconda. The US president shed tears while commenting on the deaths of American soldiers in Afghanistan, saying that the troops died for a noble and just cause. Bush prepared Americans for additional combat losses, such as those at Gardez, saying there are "still dangerous missions left ahead."
"We're making good progress. It's a sign of what's going to happen for a while," Bush said about the war in Afghanistan. "My fellow Americans must understand that we'll be relentless and determined to do what is right, and we will take loss of life, and this makes me very sad."
Operation Anaconda and the resulting American causalities have caused some in the military openly to criticise the operation as poorly planned. They suggest that more aerial bombings should have taken place before troops were sent in and that the high level of resistance encountered was unexpected. In an interview with Sam Donaldson on ABC THIS WEEK, General Tommy Franks responded to these criticisms saying that the operation entailed "very good" and "very thorough" planning and coherent intelligence. "I think any time you have a whole bunch of people in uniform moving into an enemy area in order to attack objectives, there will certainly be places within this area where we'll encounter very, very substantial resistance," Franks said. "We will almost never have perfect intelligence information. I would not downplay the possibility that forces who moved into this area got into a heck of a firefight at some point that they did not anticipate. I think that's entirely possible. I think we've seen it in the past and, to be very honest with you, I think we'll see it in the future."
US officials said they were satisfied with the progress of Operation Anaconda and that military operations would continue until all pockets of Al-Qa'eda and Taliban resistance had been eliminated. About 1,000 Afghan fighters have joined the front lines in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan to assist in the operation. American officials think that there are fewer than 200 enemy fighters left in the mountains, south of the city of Gardez. US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said there were still more than 800 US soldiers operating in the Shah-e-Kot Valley and said he hoped the mopping-up process would be over by the end of the week.
The war on terrorism launched by Bush in October has succeeded in toppling the Taliban regime and disrupting the Al-Qa'eda network in Afghanistan. However, the capture of Osama Bin Laden, blamed for the September 11 attacks against America, remains an unfulfilled objective. The whereabouts of Bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Mohamed Omar remain a mystery.
"For any terrorist looking for a base of operations, there must be no refuge, no safe haven," Bush told more than 1,000 people gathered at an 11 September remembrance ceremony held on the White House's South Lawn. "Every terrorist must be made to live as an international fugitive, with no place to settle or organise, no place to hide, no governments to hide behind and not even a safe place to sleep
Bush also mentioned US military involvement in other countries. He said the US has already deployed American soldiers in the Philippines, Georgia and Yemen to assist in military training and provide equipment for combating global terrorism. He emphasised, however, that the US had no plans to overextend itself in the war on terrorism. "We will not send American troops to every battle, but America will actively prepare other nations for the battles ahead," he said. "This mission will end when the work is finished ó when terror networks with global reach have been defeated."
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