Special forces ready to enter Afghanistan

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, OCT.10. War planes of the U.S. pounded targets in and around the capital city of Kabul in what is seen as an intensification of strikes against Afghanistan after relative slow runs over the last two days. Specific targets are those of the Taliban in Kabul.

(AP quoted senior defence officials as saying the U.S. plans to use 5,000-pound (2,250 kg) ``bunker-buster'' laser-guided bombs against the underground bunkers of Taliban leaders. The officials said they did not know whether the bunker strikes had been carried out as planned on Tuesday and Wednesday.)

Unnamed officials in the Pentagon said up to 1000 U.S. special forces were ready to move into Afghanistan from Uzbekistan. This Central Asian nation is a critical component in the U.S. and British land and air operations even if very little is mentioned for the record and for obvious reasons.

The U.S.-led bombardment on Wednesday night of Kabul is said to be the heaviest since the start of the air strikes on Sunday. Several jets are participating in the night attack even as the Taliban gunners are opening fire from the centre and the western parts of the Capital, according to reports reaching here. At least five or six large explosions have been heard.

The U.S. planes took to the skies for the fourth day in a row not only revisiting targets struck before in Afghanistan but also focussing on more mobile targets such as troop convoys. The U.S. jets are going after targets all over Afghanistan.

For the second day, the U.S. carried out daylight raids with one of the focal points being Kandahar, where the airport once again came under attack. Huge explosions were heard in the city after the night strikes.

There are reports that the U.S. was planning to use helicopters for specific attacks on the hideouts of the Al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.

The Bush administration is moving another aircraft carrier to the area. The USS Kitty Hawk and its support vessels would be of tremendous help in the movement of largescale commando units and helicopters. The choppers, which can carry upto 14 commandos, are capable of flying low and fast under any weather condition.

While operational details are closely-guarded, it is believed that the special forces would not only seek wanted terrorists, but also go after key leaders of the Taliban militia.

It was said that the Northern Alliance (NA) had also made progress and that the Taliban was facing a lot of heat in its traditional strongholds. The NA leadership has complained that the West had not risen to the occasion the way they should have, but indications are that the NA had been getting a lot of assistance, including on the weapons front.

It is believed that the air strikes would have substantially softened the ground for the NA. The U.S. forces are expected to start land operations only after it is determined that the Taliban was really vulnerable. ``When the right time comes - that is when our ground forces will attack,'' a spokesman for the United Front said here.

The Defence Department is convinced that the Taliban's military component has just about been wiped out, especially with regard to air defences. ``Essentially we have air supremacy over Afghanistan now,'' the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Richard Myers, said. But there is some concern on the ability of the Taliban to go after low-flying helicopters with the American-made Stinger missiles.

The Pentagon is reviewing the damage caused through satellite images and other reconnaissance. While on the one hand, there is full satisfaction that tremendous damage had been brought on the Taliban and the Al-Qaeda network, there is also the feeling that some sites would have to be struck again.

The Defence Department is talking about ``emerging targets'' - anything that may have surfaced in the wake of the relentless bombing campaign. Officials said this could involve convoys of Taliban troops or members of the Al-Qaeda, including its leader Osama.

Meanwhile, the U.S. President, Mr. George Bush, released the names of 22 individuals who were in the Federal Bureau of Investigation's `most wanted list'. Heading the list is Osama bin Laden.

Cluster munitions to be used

AP reports:

Air war planners have selected the ``bunker-buster'' bombs for use against underground bunkers used by Taliban leaders to coordinate military operations, three senior defence officials said. The GBU-28, whose inventory and performance characteristics are classified secret, was developed for the Gulf War to strike deeply buried targets. It was used on Feb. 27, 1991, against a bunker complex in Iraq; two years ago, a version with improved guidance systems was put into production.

The officials said U.S. warplanes also would begin dropping cluster munitions - bombs that dispense smaller bomblets - for use against moving and stationary land targets such as armored vehicles and troop convoys.

Aerial bombing will continue as well, the Secretary of State, Gen. Colin Powell, said on Wednesday. ``There are still targets that are being examined for restrike and there are additional targets'' that military commanders are looking at, Powell said on ABC television's Good Morning America.

Humanitarian aid

The U.S. coupled the air assaults with a humanitarian effort, dropping packets of food aid from planes. The Taliban announced that Afghans were destroying the packets rather than eating the food. Mr. Abdul Hanan Himat, a spokesman for the Taliban Information Ministry, said, ``The Americans are killing us and attacking us, and we don't need this food.''

Along rugged stretches of the Pakistani border, Pakistani troops have been fending off Taliban fighters apparently seeking to flee the bombing campaign. Pakistani defence and intelligence officials said that their soldiers had fought a two-hour gun battle on Tuesday with about 30 Taliban soldiers who were trying to cross over - the second such incident in two days.

The Taliban, on their part, said they had repelled an assault by the Northern Alliance in the northern Gur province. Mr. Himat said 35 opposition fighters had been killed. The claims could not be independently verified.

Meanwhile, the United Nations complained that its Afghan staffers still inside the country were becoming targets of Taliban loyalists. The U.N. withdrew its foreign staff at the outset of the crisis, but Afghan nationals remained behind.

The U.N. spokeswoman, Ms. Stephanie Bunker, told presspersons in Pakistan that Afghan staff had been beaten in Kabul as well as in Kandahar and Jalalabad. The Taliban had also seized a number of vehicles, including three ambulances and a pickup truck.

Journalists stoned?

AFP reports from Islamabad:

The Taliban announced that it had charged a French journalist and two Pakistani colleagues with spying, a crime that carries the death penalty. ``Today our department has officially accused the French national and his two Pakistani associates of spying and they will face a trial in a special court,'' the Taliban intelligence chief, Mullah Taj Meer, told the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press news agency.

The Paris Match journalist, Mr. Michel Peyrard, and his two Pakistani colleagues - Mohammad Irfan and Mr. Mukkaram Khan - were arrested on Tuesday for allegedly entering the country illegally.

The three were displayed on the streets of a Taliban-held city and were stoned by angry residents, a Taliban source said.

Mr. Meer said the three presspersons were carrying ``spying equipment'' and that the Pakistanis had previously been warned not to bring foreigners into Afghanistan illegally. ``Any journalist entering Afghanistan illegally will be treated like an American soldier.''

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