/ 30 November 2001

Marines poised to move in for the kill

Kabul | Tuesday

HUNDREDS of US Marines backed by US air power were poised on Tuesday to move in for the kill on the last major pocket of Taliban resistance and the forces of terror suspect Osama bin Laden.

The US move came as American warplanes and troops of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance struggled for a third day to put down a rebellion by prisoners of war that has already left hundreds of them dead.

Some 500 Marines were flown into southern Afghanistan by helicopter to secure a desert airstrip near the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar in the first big US ground operation of the seven-week-old war, American officials said.

More than 1 000 were to be on the ground within days, backed by helicopter gunships, attack planes and bombers as they stepped up their drive to ferret out bin Laden and his remaining Taliban protectors.

US officials, who had played down the chances of finding bin Laden just two weeks ago, were upbeat after the Islamic militia’s hold on most of the country crumbled before troops of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance.

”We’re smoking them out,” President George W. Bush said in Washington on Monday. ”They’re running and now we’re going to bring them to justice.”

Senior Northern Alliance officials in the capital said bin Laden and the Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar were trapped in the Kandahar area and surrounded, but this was not confirmed by US officials.

General Richard Myers, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, warned against expecting a quick victory over the Taliban. ”We think they’ll dig in and fight perhaps to the end,” he said.

US special forces have been on the ground in Afghanistan for weeks, vowing to bring bin Laden to justice for the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

The Marines dropped in on Monday came from two warships in the Arabian Sea. They secured the airbase as a forward base for larger-scale operations, and American hardware was in action shortly afterward.

AH-1W Cobra helicopter gunships helped spot an armoured column near Kandahar that was then attacked by an F-14 Tomcat fighter, US officials said. There was no immediate word on damage or casualties.

At the same time, local tribal forces, possibly backed by US troops, captured at least one main town along the road southeast of Kandahar to the border with Pakistan, anti-Taliban officials said.

All traffic to the border was cut, sealing a key escape route for leaders of the Taliban or bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network in Kandahar, while US bombing reportedly severed their communications with other Afghan provinces.

But the Taliban denied claims that local tribes had captured the border town of Spin Boldak.

The move on Kandahar, the base of Mullah Omar, came after the militia’s remaining northern bastion in the city of Kunduz crumbled under pressure from besieging Northern Alliance forces.

Taliban forces as well as hardcore al-Qaeda members are believed to have massed in and around Kandahar following their rapid retreat from the northern half of the country over the past two weeks.

But bin Laden’s location is still a mystery, with the Taliban last week insisting they had lost all contact with their ”guest” who has lived in Afghanistan under the militia’s protection since 1996.

In the north, the Taliban lost control of Kunduz, their last major foothold other than the southern provinces, on Monday after thousands of militiamen surrendered over the weekend.

Northern Alliance officials said around 5 750 Taliban fighters had surrendered from Kunduz.

Troops loyal to alliance general Mohammad Daoud entered the city after a fierce battle with die-hard Taliban militia that left about 100 soldiers dead on both sides, according to Daoud’s officers.

Meanwhile, US warplanes made new bombing runs and fighting flared again at a prison fortress in northern Afghanistan where foreign pro-Taliban fighters have been in revolt since Sunday.

AC-130 gunships were seen dropping bombs on the Qala-e-Jangi fort overnight apparently trying to hit a munitions warehouse taken by the prisoners.

Northern Alliance commanders claimed to have restored order by 3am. But after sunrise, bursts of mortar shells and the rattle of machine gun fire were heard from inside the fort where some 500 alliance soldiers had tried in vain on Monday to regain control.

Pentagon representative Victoria Clarke said five US military personnel were injured on Sunday in a US air strike at the prison.

”In calling in close air support, a JDAM landed near some of our forces,” she said, referring to a satellite-guided bomb. ”There were some injuries. None at this point are reported to be life threatening.”

Alliance officials said most of some 600 Taliban prisoners died in the battles which followed their uprising, after they snatched their guards’ weapons and opened fire. – Sapa-AFP