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B-52s
Unload on Taliban Positions
Excerpts
from articles describing the current state of the US and allies'
war on islamic extremist terrorism / the Taliban:
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War's
Heaviest Strikes So Far Termed Effective by Opposition Northern
Alliance
Jabal
Saraj, Afghanistan, Nov. 2 -- The attacks started well before
dawn, signaled by the roar of jet engines in the night sky.
By
mid-afternoon, when they tapered off, forces of Afghanistan's
ruling Taliban had received their heaviest pounding of the nearly
four-week-old U.S. bombing campaign on the front lines north
of Kabul.
With
targeting assistance from U.S. military personnel on the ground,
waves of B-52 bombers unloaded today on Taliban positions on
the Shomali plain and in the hills overlooking Bagram air base.
Plumes
of smoke rise from Taliban
positions after a B-52 bombed
targets north of Kabul, 11/02/01
They
blasted a Taliban field headquarters, posts held by newly arrived
volunteers from Pakistan and more than a dozen Taliban tanks
and assorted heavy machine guns and antiaircraft weapons.
The
opposition Northern Alliance also reported intensified U.S.
Bombing of Taliban positions around the northern city of Mazar-e
Sharif, where a rebel offensive has been stymied lately by Taliban
counterattacks.
The
explosions from the bombs dumped on the Taliban north of Kabul
shook mud houses and rattled windows in villages held by the
Northern Alliance, miles from the front.
Bright
orange flashes emanated from some of the buildings hit on the
Taliban side of the line, and huge plumes of smoke and dirt
rose in the clear morning sky.
...
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Source:
U.S.
Warplanes Sent to Rescue Pashtun Anti-Taleban Leader in Southern
Afghanistan
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U.S.
warplanes were sent to the aid of an Afghan opposition leader
who came under attack by the Taliban on Thursday in southern
Afghanistan, a senior U.S. government official said yesterday.
Navy
fighter-bombers fired on Taliban forces that were attempting
to capture Hamid Karzai, a prominent Afghan tribal leader from
the dominant Pashtun ethnic group. Karzai, 43, who has lived
in exile in Pakistan since the mid-1990s, has been working inside
Afghanistan since Oct. 8 to persuade Pashtun leaders to turn
against the Taliban, according to his relatives.
Karzai
and a group of armed supporters were attacked by Taliban troops
as they left a meeting with tribal elders in the south-central
province of Uruzgan. U.S. warplanes based on aircraft carriers
were immediately sent to help, the U.S. official said.
"There
was a battle going on, and U.S. aircraft came in from the sea
to provide support," the official said.
Karzai's
brother, Ahmed Karzai, who said he had spoken with Hamid Karzai
by satellite telephone yesterday, said: "They managed to
fight off the Taliban and they have escaped."
...
"People are scared," he said. "They know they
can get killed for opposing the Taliban." But Ahmed Karzai
said that his brother considered his foray into enemy territory
a "necessary risk" to help form a new government.
...
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Source:
U.S.
Chopper Crash in Afghanistan due to Weather, Crew Rescued, U.S.
Destroys Chopper With F-14s
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A
U.S. helicopter on a Special Forces mission in northern Afghanistan
was forced down by bad weather yesterday, but the crew was lifted
out safely by a second helicopter on the same mission, Pentagon
officials said.
Four
crew members were injured in the crash, which severely damaged
the helicopter, a Pentagon statement said. None of the injuries
was determined to be life-threatening, although one crew member
suffered a serious back injury, according to a senior defense
official.
The
damaged helicopter was destroyed by an airstrike executed by
F-14 Tomcats flying off the USS Theodore Roosevelt, an aircraft
carrier operating in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Pakistan,
the Pentagon statement said.
"It
was a pretty hard crash landing," one defense official
said. He and other officials declined to identify the type of
helicopter involved, where in Afghanistan it went down or what
mission it was on.
...
The decision to destroy the helicopter could indicate that it
went down in hostile or contested territory. But some special
operations helicopters carry secret communications equipment
and other sensitive technology that U.S. authorities would not
want to fall into any foreign hands, even friendly ones. ...
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Source:
Northern
Alliance May Be Gearing Up for Push South
Excerpt
from article describing the increased likelihood of a move on
Kabul by the Northern Alliance some time in the near future:
Northern
Alliance soldiers, wearing
newly acquired uniforms, 11/02/01
The
Northern Alliance army may at last be ready to roll. After weeks
of waiting on the Samali Plain, north of Kabul, they are gearing
themselves up for a push south towards the capital as American
B52 bombers intensify their strikes on the Taleban front line.
Reinforcements
are being driven to the front under cover of night, munitions
and signals equipment redistributed, and thousands of new uniforms
handed out to the ragged Mujahidin strike forces.
More
significant than any other indicator of imminent action in this
haphazard war, though, is the American decision to continue
bombing the Taleban during Friday prayers.
...
The air campaign had until yesterday tip-toed around daylight
bombing on Fridays, the Islamic day of rest and holiest day of
the week, to preserve international Muslim sensitivities. But
as Shafaq spoke a series of enormous detonations were rocking
the front as B52s delivered their payloads into positions west
and east of the old road running from the Samali Plain south to
Kabul.
A
spy had just reported to Shafaq having crossed the front from
the Taleban territory a day earlier. He said that Thursday’s
strikes had destroyed at least three Taleban tanks below the
Tutakhan mountain and killed dozens of fighters.
...
the Alliance is still unsure whether the US is indeed its ally
or merely a wayward partner in an unsigned marriage of convenience.
There
can be little disputing, however, the gravity of the past three
days’ strikes. Day and night, Taleban positions on the
main axis route to Kabul have been hit by 1,000lb bombs, and
even if only a proportion were accurate, the Taleban’s
artillery and tanks would have been seriously damaged. ...
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Source:
- The Times
[link inactive]
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Lessons
From the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan
Link
to graphic with details on the lessons learned from the Soviet
invasion of Afghanistan, lessons which should be of value to
the US in our current campaign against islamic extremist terrorism:
Lessons
From the Soviet
Invasion of Afghanistan
Excerpts
from article which details on how US and British forces will
deal with the Afghan winter and how the Soviet successes and
failures will impact the military campaign:
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War
has its seasons and it has been widely predicted that Afghanistan
will become almost inaccessible for American and British commandos
once the snow and freezing temperatures of an Afghan winter
arrive in about three weeks’ time.
Politicians
and military alike have said that the campaign in Afghanistan
will be more difficult to prosecute in winter conditions. Yet,
as past winter wars have demonstrated, fighting in the cold
has its advantages, provided the troops are properly trained
and appropriately equipped.
...
“If you are properly trained, you can use the snow and
harsh conditions to your own advantage. First of all, you can
get around on skis on terrain which in the summer would pose
more difficulties. Rivers are frozen over, and ground that might
be boggy or marshy in other seasons, providing problems for
vehicles, becomes more usable when covered in snow.”
Marines
and special forces can also survive for long periods in dug-out
snowholes provided they have enough food, and they can make
better predictions of what the enemy will do because each side
is having to endure the same weather conditions.
Gathering
intelligence of enemy ground movements was also assisted by
a snow-covered terrain, General Thompson said, because footprints
and vehicle tracks can be spotted from the air. Every movement
leaves tracks.
...
The American and British specialist troops will also have the
potential advantage of taking the battle to the Taleban in the
winter at a time when the regime’s experienced fighters
might normally expect to hibernate from November to February.
The Afghans are accustomed to harsh terrain and a rough climate
but during the two decades of civil war action has slowed in
the winter months.
The
coalition troops will also have thermal detection systems to
find heat signatures at entrances to caves. Thermal sights will
work particularly well in the winter. They pick out contrasts
in temperature, and the warmth of the human body against the
snow “is going to jump out like a headlight”, according
to one defence source.
The
troops will also be able to operate at night, with the help
of infra-red sensors and night optic systems. The Taleban have
no such sophisticated equipment.
A
US Army commando, speaking to The Washington Times, said: “We
train for the winter warfare environment and can function in
it and actually be comfortable. The Afghans are miserable in
that environment and don’t want to come out and play. We
do not plan to stop and wait for spring. Advantages definitely
go to an air-mobile force like ours.”
However,
the coalition troops also need to learn from Russia’s bitter
experience. The Americans and British have been consulting the
Russians at every level.
The
Soviet invasion force that rumbled over the Amu Darya river
towards Mazar-i Sharif in 1979 eventually became a 100,000-strong
occupying army, the biggest Soviet troop deployment since the
Second World War. But in the next ten years it lost hundreds
of aircraft and at least 15,000 men and never won the Afghans’
hearts and minds.
The
Soviet Spetsnaz, or special forces, proved more successful.
Helicoptered or parachuted behind enemy lines in deployments
of up to 50 troops at a time, they grasped the vital importance
of high-quality intelligence, often speaking local dialects
fluently, and scored significant victories against supposed
Mujahidin strongholds even in the final years of the war when
the rest of the Soviet force had retreated to heavily fortified
urban barracks. ...
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Source:
- The Times
[link inactive]
Kano
Islamic Group Stirring Up Trouble, Again
Excerpts
from an article describing the possibility of a renewal of religious
conflicts in Kano, Nigeria:
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There
is great tension in Kano over the possibility of another outbreak
of religious violence in the city. ... a faceless Islamic group
has been circulating leaflets since Monday calling adherents
out for another round of anti-American demonstration.
They
are asking people to assemble at Ado Bayero Prayer Ground today
in solidarity with Afghanistan. ... Many residents in Kano have
refused to go to work today and many traders too have refused
to open their shops for fear of being attacked by the Islamic
militants who wreaked havoc in the city last month, killing
and burning houses.
... About 200
people were killed in the city last month when sympathizers
of the wanted Saudi fugitive, Osama bin Laden, accused of complicity
in the September 11 suicide attacks on America, took to the
streets chanting anti-American slogans. ...
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Source:
U.S.
Jobless Rate Goes Up to 5.4%
Excerpts
from article describing the U.S. unemployment picture:
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The
US unemployment rate jumped 0.5% to 5.4% in October in the starkest
evidence yet that America is lurching towards recession after
10 years of uninterrupted growth.
The
monthly increase was the biggest in more than 21 years as 415,00
jobs disappeared from the world's largest economy.
Today's
figures from the Labour department cap a grim week of economic
statistics from the US. Official figures yesterday showed that
manufacturing activity in October slumped to its lowest level
since the depths of the 1990-91 recession.
U.S. Unemployment Rate
as of October, 2001
...
The dramatic rise in the jobless rate will put pressure on the
US Federal Reserve to cut interest rates by a half-point, rather
than settling for a quarter-point trim, when it next meets on
November 6.
The
US central bank has already cut rates nine times this year,
twice since September 11 in an increasingly frantic effort to
stave off recession. ...
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Source:
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