28 March - 3 April 2002
Issue No.579
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 28 March - 3 April 2002 Issue No.579 |
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New lease of life for Anaconda
With Operation Anaconda officially over, Taliban and Al-Qa'eda forces are continuing to regroup in Afghanistan, writes Anayat Durrani
The United States offensive, code-named "Operation Anaconda," is the US's largest military operation since it launched its war on terrorism in Afghanistan on 7 October. Officially it is over, but according to US Vice President Dick Cheney the battle against terror in Afghanistan looks set to continue indefinitely. More than 2,000 US coalition and Afghan troops began the battle against Al-Qa'eda forces camped out high in the mountains of the Shahi-Kot area on 1 March. Hundreds of Al-Qa'eda fighters and Taliban were killed, while just under 20 were captured. Eight Americans and three Afghans fighting with the US were killed in the battle, and 46 US service members were wounded. During the course of the operation, US planes conducted about 950 sorties and dropped more than 3,450 bombs. Coalition forces searched at least 30 caves in the region, collecting anything left behind by Al-Qa'eda forces. And while Operation Anaconda is now over, Operation Enduring Freedom continues.
Cheney told CNN's Late Edition that US forces saw a group of Al-Qa'eda and Taliban fighters coalescing in the area where Operation Anaconda was launched a few weeks ago.
General Tommy Franks told NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday, "There are still Al-Qa'eda scattered around Afghanistan. There are, I'm sure, going to be efforts by them to try to organise themselves enough so that they can launch an attack at least on our forces in Afghanistan. We see intelligence to that effect.
"What we have left to do is be sure that we've completed what we started out to do 169 days ago, and that's to assure ourselves that the Al-Qa'eda network inside Afghanistan is destroyed, and so we're going to continue to do that work until we are in fact satisfied."
Franks said he believed that so far the US had been successful in achieving its objectives within Afghanistan and cited the toppling of the Taliban government. When asked what had happened to the 20,000 to 40,000 Taliban forces estimated to have been in Afghanistan before 7 October, Franks said, "I think that a great many of them have in fact joined the forces of the Afghan Interim Administration... just simply reintegrated themselves into Afghan society."
Franks also reiterated that the war in Afghanistan, and the war on terrorism in general, would continue for some time. "I think President [George W] Bush has laid it out exactly right. We should expect to be doing this for a long, long time into the future."
Just short of a day following the completion of Operation Anaconda, US troops at the airfield at Khost, Afghanistan, were involved in a firefight when Taliban and Al-Qa'eda forces attacked with machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and mortar fire, according to Pentagon spokeswoman Tori Clarke. US troops responded with the use of an AC-130 helicopter gunship. During the firefight, one soldier was hit in the arm, but his wound was not considered life-threatening. US officials said that the incident was evidence that groups of Al- Qa'eda forces remained throughout Afghanistan.
"This is a very clear example of what we've said all along: that there would be firefights, there would be pockets of resistance, that it's a dangerous place and these things will happen," Clarke said. "We've expected it."
Franks said US troops found evidence that Al- Qa'eda may have been attempting to develop weapons of mass destruction. US Special Forces uncovered a laboratory in Afghanistan believed to be used for the manufacture of biological weapons. The laboratory was found in southern Afghanistan near the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar. However, no evidence was uncovered indicating that any chemical or biological weapons had been made there. The discovery of the laboratory is considered significant because the US has long held the belief that Osama Bin Laden's Al-Qa'eda network was trying to acquire and develop biological and chemical weapons. Franks said evidence gathered at 50 to 60 sites in Afghanistan, including the facility in Kandahar, suggested that Al-Qa'eda leaders were "in hot pursuit" of biological and chemical weapons. However, he said, "We have not found an indication that anything ever got mixed in the right way to create weapons of mass destruction."
Meanwhile, the US military has flown in a small group of A-10 Thunderbolt ground attack aircraft, known as "Warthogs," to Afghanistan to provide additional fire support for US operations. Fewer than 10 planes will operate out of Bagram air base just north of Kabul. The A-10 was used during Operation Anaconda, but this will mark the first time since the war in Afghanistan began that some planes are stationed inside the country. The planes are reported to carry at least six 500-pound bombs, having the ability to swoop low and close to enemy targets. The planes were used during operations in the 1991 Gulf War.
The search continues for Osama Bin Laden and top members of Al-Qa'eda, blamed for the 11 September attacks on America. US-led coalition forces remain steadfast in their hunt, even though they have not found any signs of the Saudi-born dissident. Cheney said he believed Bin Laden was still in the general area of Afghanistan or across the border in Pakistan, but conceded that officials did not even have proof that Bin Laden was still alive.
Cheney reiterated that President Bush has maintained that US forces would "stay as long as possible until we've wrapped up our mission of eliminating Al-Qa'eda and making certain that we've dealt with the terrorist threat that emerged in Afghanistan."
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