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| Afghanistan | ||
| Afghan and U.S. Troops Overrun Taliban | ||
| 2003-09-02 | ||
| Afghan and U.S. troops overran three suspected Taliban positions and pinned down fighters in a cave Tuesday as fighting raged on in southern Afghanistan, the U.S. military and an Afghan commander said. American bombing echoed through the mountains as the troops tried to root out hundreds of Taliban holdouts who have offered a week of fierce resistance. Coalition forces clashed with five- and 10-strong groups of fighters firing small arms and rocket-propelled grenades, U.S. military spokesman Col. Rodney Davis said. The troops had cornered a group of insurgents in a cave and were attacking it Tuesday afternoon using small arms fire, artillery and air support. Pity we don’t have flamethrowers anymore. There were no reported coalition casualties in the latest fighting, Davis said. He had no details on Taliban casualties. Gen. Haji Saifullah Khan, the main Afghan commander in the battle area in Zabul province’s Dai Chopan district, said U.S. warplanes and helicopter gunships hammered Taliban positions until shortly before dawn Tuesday. Khan said the Taliban had been pushed back from three hideouts Tuesday but were continuing to hunker down, using the rough terrain as their shield. "It’s a huge mountain with many gorges in it. It provides very excellent shelter against bombing," said Khan, who spoke to The Associated Press by satellite phone from the front lines. The commander said his men would offer the Taliban in other hideouts a chance to surrender — then move in. "We have tightened our siege. We are very close to the Taliban positions," he said. "We will try to make them surrender. If they do not surrender then fighting will start." Let’s not have another Tora Bora, shall we?. Khan said U.S. warplanes targeted the Sairo Gar mountain area. His ground troops found bedding and turbans but no weapons at the three locations — Kafir Shaila, Kabai and Ragh.
Have to expose yourself in order to run.
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| Posted by:Steve |
| #13 From a hosing standpoint, I suggest running a hose from the exhaust of any available internal combustion engine into the cave. Yearly, hundreds of Americans commit suicide in the garage using carbon monoxide. Nice quiet way for the mujihadin to slide in to a dirt nap the sleepy way. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2003-9-2 8:08:08 PM |
| #12 Ok, so forget the Napalm. White Phos. would work in some cases. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2003-9-2 7:24:01 PM |
| #11 Ok, so forget the Napalm. White Phos. would work in some cases. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2003-9-2 7:23:51 PM |
| #10 We could do that, but the UN would complain about 'in-human' act of war. |
| Posted by: Charles 2003-9-2 5:26:43 PM |
| #9 Napalm would be effective for caves, if you can identify the vents, if any. My friend used to fly P38s in the Pacific in WW2. In Borneo, they would have trouble with gun emplacements in caves equipped with blast doors. They would bomb all day, then when they stopped, enemy guns would start firing again. Then they decided to drop napalm over the whole mountain. So they dropped and dropped till the mountain was one big flame. After the fires went out....no more big guns. An examination of the caves after the bombing exposed hundreds of Japanese soldiers suffocated from lack of oxygen that the napalm fire took away. It works. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-9-2 1:55:29 PM |
| #8 UPDATE: Afghanistan's Taliban has sent 300 more fighters to the southern province of Zabul to help battle Afghan government and U.S.-led troops, a commander from the ousted militia said on Tuesday. Maulvi Faizullah, a senior Taliban commander involved in fighting in Zabul, said a fresh wave of militants had been deployed in Dai Chopan district to join up to 1,000 others who have been fighting in the area for the last eight days. The reinforcements were being led by former Taliban Education Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, Faizullah told Reuters. They had been sent from Khost province in the east bordering Pakistan, he said. "Hello, Maulvi,,hello, hello, I can hardly hear you. Yes, we are driving the merkins and their government lackies back. Send us more troops and we can drive them back to Kabul. What's that? I don't sound the same? Er, I was wounded, yeah, wounded, I'm ok though. Hurry up or you'll miss our victory!" SF trooper drops phone, turns to another. "OK, LT, they're coming. Call in the BUFFs" |
| Posted by: Steve 2003-9-2 1:07:37 PM |
| #7 Lay down your weapons and go home? What kind of surrender is that? Our Afghan allies: "Show us the money, and we'll let you get away to fight another day." |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2003-9-2 10:58:52 AM |
| #6 "Lay down your weapons and go home? What kind of surrender is that?" Maybe one were we're really interested in the leaders with them? |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2003-9-2 10:35:46 AM |
| #5 Lay down your weapons |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-9-2 10:26:50 AM |
| #4 Here's a picture of him. |
| Posted by: Rafael 2003-9-2 10:16:00 AM |
| #3 Sgt. AT-4 |
| Posted by: Rafael 2003-9-2 10:13:22 AM |
| #2 Who's gonna go in the cave to pass on the note? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-9-2 10:00:24 AM |
| #1 UPDATE: On Monday, a provincial religious leader, Mulvi Abdul Rahman, told AP that he had spoken to tribal elders in the area and asked them to pass along an offer on behalf of the Zabul governor to the Taliban: Lay down your weapons and we will allow you to return home. Rahman said he had not received a response, but that negotiations to end the battle peacefully where ongoing. Lay down your weapons and go home? What kind of surrender is that? Any odds that negotiations will fail and we will go in and find that everyone as slipped away during negotiations? |
| Posted by: GregJ 2003-9-2 9:41:55 AM |