Gardez | Thursday
THE United States has rushed hundreds of reinforcements to the mountains of eastern Afghanistan as the coalition against terrorism pressed into the sixth day of its costliest battle.
As Cobra helicopter gunships and Apaches made their way to the rugged mountains of Afghanistan, the military said 100 more al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters were eliminated in fighting on Wednesday.
Major General Frank Hagenbeck, the commander of Operation Anaconda –named after the snake that encircles and crushes its prey — had said on Wednesday there had been 600 to 700 al-Qaeda fighters in the Arma mountains and half of them were dead.
But Abdul Matin Hassankhiel, who said he commands 135 of 800 Afghans fighting with the United States, estimated there could be thousands of extremists left in the Paktia province hideout possibly including top leaders.
He noted the ferocity of the resistance to the US-led assault, particularly to a ground offensive that was pushed back on Saturday by heavy fire.
“Fierce fighting cannot be achieved by low-ranking people. There are definitely high-ranking people there as well,” he told reporters in his makeshift headquarters in Paktia’s capital Gardez.
The United States has refused to speculate on whether al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the Saudi dissident who allegedly masterminded the September 11 terrorist attacks, is in the mountains.
But French Defence Minister Alain Richard, whose country is lending air power to the campaign, said there was a “strong possibility” bin Laden was dead.
“We haven’t had any sign of him for quite a long time,” Richard told the Europe 1 radio station.
B-52 bombers were seen on Thursday in the skies over Gardez, which residents said were lighted orange overnight by heavy bombardment.
Freshly resupplied US, Afghan and allied forces continued to push south from the village of Sirkankel, 15 kilometres (nine and a half miles) south of Gardez, into one of the militant group’s last remaining strongholds in Afghanistan, said US Army Major Bryan Hilferty.
Food, water, fuel, ammunition and equipment to build bunkers came in by helicopter late on Wednesday, the military representative said.
He said the coalition forces had taken prisoner some al-Qaeda fighters, but he did not know how many.
Army General Tommy Franks, commander of the US military campaign in Afghanistan, said hundreds more troops and attack helicopters were being sent to the region to deal with the stiff al-Qaeda resistance.
He acknowledged the high risks faced in Operation Anaconda.
“I think the days ahead are going to continue to be dangerous days for our forces that are committed to this effort,” Franks said in Washington. “But the alternative to taking such risk is not acceptable in my view.”
Eight US servicemen have been killed and about 50 wounded in fierce fighting in the operation, which is the deadliest battle for US forces since the military campaign began on October 7 to rid Afghanistan of the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
Franks said 200-300 more US troops have been moved into the battle zone, a 155-square-kilometre area where more than 2 000 US, Afghan and coalition troops are battling dug-in al-Qaeda fighters believed to come from places including Uzbekistan and Chechnya.
In Kabul, eight peacekeepers injured in an accidental explosion in Kabul which killed three Danish and two German soldiers were flown to Germany for treatment.
The casualties were the first for the International Security Assistance Force since the peacekeepers were deployed in Kabul in December, said British Captain Graham Dunlop, an ISAF press officer.
German Defence Minister Rudolf Scharping told reporters in Berlin that the eight injured, among them five Germans, were in stable condition.
Three of the soldiers had been seriously wounded in the blast and treated in the French and German hospitals in Kabul.
Dunlop said an investigation had been launched into the incident Wednesday, in which the three Danes and two German staff sergeants were killed as they tried to defuse a Soviet-made SA-3 anti-aircraft missile.
Scharping also announced a joint German-Danish commission of four experts that would be sent to Kabul as soon as possible to determine the cause of the accident and if necessary, make new safety recommendations. – AFP
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