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Afghanistan
US death toll at nine as al-Qaeda pockets cleaned up
2002-03-04
  • The US death toll in a major US air and ground operation in eastern Afghanistan rose to nine. US officials previously indicated that there were eight US deaths in the latest fighting. SecDef Donald Rumsfeld told reporters that six of the US deaths came in a crash of helicopter hit in the region. Rumsfeld added that "several" Afghans fighting alongside US forces had also been killed, and that the Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters had suffered a number of casualties.

    "The enemy forces have sustained much larger numbers of killed and wounded, and there will be many more," he said. "We intend to continue to the operation until those al-Qaeda and Taliban who remain are either surrendered or killed...
    Substantial pockets of resistance remain. They're determined, they're dangerous, they will not give up without a fight, they are hiding in the villages and in the mountains and just across the borders in a number of directions from Afghanistan, and they're waiting for their opportunities."
    According to the press reports I've read [the Sydney Morn. Hrld. was the best] the US commander seems to have bungled both the approach to contact and maneuvers to isolate and encircle the town. The use of transport helicopters within light AA range or small arms range is indicative of US overconfidence. The SMH report indicated also some miscommunications between the US and Afghan forces.

    This situation can be compared to the operations of the SF forces which used ground pounding Afghans as the front line infantry, and stressed proper preparation of the battlefield and tactical movements. In a sense, such mistakes were to be anticipated, given that the US Army is not staffed by supermen. On the other hand, its obvious from the SMH report that the US was lucky in this case that it was fighting with overwhelming military power to focus on an entrenched, immobile defending force.
    Posted by Tom Roberts 3/4/2002 5:45:15 PM
    • Posted by:Fred Pruitt

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