U.S. sets up forces in Pakistan

Bases will be used for support, not combat troops, Islamabad says

10/12/2001

By GREGG JONES / The Dallas Morning News

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – U.S. military forces are operating from at least three Pakistani bases in preparation for American ground attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistani government officials and military sources said Thursday.

The U.S. buildup at the Pakistani bases includes helicopters and transport aircraft as well as ground support and aircraft repair crews, the officials and military sources said.

The bases will serve as emergency landing strips and staging areas for rescue and recovery operations if U.S. pilots are shot down over Afghanistan, government officials and military officials said.

Pakistan has stressed that its territory would not be a staging ground for military strikes against neighboring Afghanistan. But well-placed Pakistani intelligence sources said that plans are in place for some U.S. troops to launch operations into Afghanistan from bases in Pakistan.

The American troops will be escorted by Pakistani special forces with experience in Afghanistan, the intelligence sources said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, U.S. warplanes pounded Afghanistan for a fifth day, including the first daylight raid on Kabul, the capital. U.S. planes returned to the skies over Kabul late Thursday.

In the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, stronghold of the ruling Taliban militia, strikes set off a series of deafening blasts at a munitions dump, sending civilians fleeing toward the border with Pakistan.

"People ran without looking back," refugee Abdul Gharrar told The Associated Press after arriving at Pakistan's Chaman border crossing.

The Taliban said at least 115 people had been killed in overnight strikes late Wednesday and early Thursday, including 100 in a village near Jalalabad and 15 who died when a missile hit a mosque in that northeastern city. The reports could not be independently confirmed.

The United States began airstrikes against Afghanistan on Sunday after the ruling Taliban regime rejected repeated U.S. demands to surrender Osama bin Laden. U.S. officials describe Mr. bin Laden as the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.

In Washington, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said that despite five days of intensive bombing, allied aircraft still face a threat from the Taliban's air defenses.

"There are a lot of stingers and a lot of man-portable surface-to-air missiles," Mr. Rumsfeld told reporters at the Pentagon. "That is a fact, and we have been attempting to reduce that.

"They also still have helicopters, and they still have fighters."

Mr. Rumsfeld gave that response to a question, which he did not directly answer, on whether the air defense threat had diminished to the point where Army helicopters could be used for missions by special-perations troops in Afghanistan.

As part of the attack on military facilities, he said, the allied forces have been targeting "command and control" facilities. He said that military leaders, "to the extent that they're in command and control," are targets as well.

Asked to comment on the reports of civilian casualties in Afghanistan, Mr. Rumsfeld said "it has always been the case" in military engagements that there will be unintended loss of life.

"Everyone in this country knows that the United States of America does not target civilians," he said. "We have not, we do not."

At a later briefing, Maj. Gen. Henry Osman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said that U.S. forces struck six targets in Afghanistan on Tuesday, including militant training camps, airfields and defense facilities. He said seven targets were struck Wednesday, including troop-training facilities, military forces, motor pools, and missile and radar sites near Kandahar and Kabul.

"I can say that we're satisfied to this point that the strikes have been fairly successful," Gen. Osman said. While not all of the Taliban's military equipment has been destroyed, "we've made some good headway."

In London, the head of the British armed forces, Adm. Sir Michael Boyce, said U.S.-led military action in Afghanistan could last into next summer unless the Taliban surrenders Mr. bin Laden.

"It could be a very short haul ... [or] we must expect to go through the winter and into next summer at the very least," Adm. Boyce said.

In Islamabad, Pakistani Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider said late Thursday that U.S. forces would be using bases at Jacobabad in Sind province and at Pasni, along Pakistan's Arabian Sea coast. He said the bases would be used "by administrative support personnel only" and not by combat troops.

More than 15 U.S. military aircraft, including C-130 transport planes, arrived over the past two days at Jacobabad, about 150 miles from the Afghan border, Pakistani officials said.

A third facility that is being used by U.S. forces is an airstrip at Pishin, near the Afghan border, a Pakistani air force officer familiar with the operations said on condition of anonymity.

Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, has said that his country's commitment of "full support" for the U.S. campaign against Afghanistan would be limited to use of Pakistani airspace by U.S. forces, intelligence sharing and logistical support.

Islamic militants have held sometimes-violent anti-American and anti-Musharraf demonstrations around the country since the U.S. strikes began. The Islamic militants are vowing to hold massive demonstrations on Friday, despite government warnings that violent demonstrations will not be tolerated.

Thus far, the U.S. airstrikes against Afghanistan have been carried out by U.S.-based bombers and fighter-bombers taking off from navy carriers in the Arabian Sea. The carrier-based aircraft have been flying over Pakistani territory through a designated 10- to 15-mile-wide corridor at an altitude of at least 30,000 feet, until descending for their bombing runs over Afghanistan, the Pakistani air force and intelligence sources said.

A Karachi-based newspaper reported in Thursday's editions that the Pakistani armed forces had taken control of four airports in Sindh, Baluchistan and Punjab provinces. The newspaper, Dawn, said the military had suspended commercial flights at the airports.

In northern Afghanistan, the opposition Northern Alliance said its forces had taken the key central province of Gur after heavy fighting with Taliban forces during the night. Spokesman Mohammed Abil said fighting continued into the morning in several areas. The report could not be independently verified.

Staff writers Tod Robberson in Islamabad, and Richard Whittle and Carl Leubsdorf in Washington contributed to this report.