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Pentagon admits Red Cross warehouse hit
10/17/2001By RICHARD WHITTLE / The Dallas Morning News
WASHINGTON – Ten days of airstrikes in Afghanistan have weakened the ruling Taliban militia to the point that opposition rebels could be on the verge of taking a key northern city, Pentagon officials said Tuesday.
U.S. airstrikes in Afghanistan rose to a furious level over the last two days with about 100 planes dropping bombs and two AC-130 gunships raking Taliban positions with cannon fire, officials said.
A senior defense official, meanwhile, confirmed that U.S. bombs struck a Red Cross warehouse in Kabul on Tuesday. The building was mistakenly targeted because it sat next to warehouses holding Taliban military equipment, the official said.
"They hit the intended target," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "They thought it was part of a series of warehouses of Taliban equipment storage. One of the warehouses turned out to be the [Red Cross] building."
Noting that a report from the region said one person was killed and Red Cross supplies were destroyed, the official added: "We, of course, regret any loss of life or property."
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in an interview with the Arab television network Al-Jazeera that "there will inevitably be some unintended casualties" in such a military campaign. Taliban anti-aircraft fire "also can kill people on the ground when it comes back down," he added.
The intensity of the airstrikes, which included cruise missile attacks, ramped up Monday and slowed only slightly Tuesday, said Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
"We're going to keep up the pressure on the terrorists and on the Taliban leadership," Gen. Newbold said. "It's going to be relentless."
More than 2,000 bombs and missiles were used against Taliban and al-Qaeda terrorist network targets in the first 10 days of airstrikes, he said.
Targets hit
The targets hit Monday included an al-Qaeda terrorist training camp as well as Taliban airfields, combat aircraft, anti-aircraft guns, surface-to-air missile emplacements, troop and vehicle staging areas, and equipment storage warehouses, Gen. Newbold said.
The airstrikes have undermined the Taliban's military power around the country, he said, helping the opposition Northern Alliance position itself to take over the "critical" city of Mazar-e Sharif.
Some Northern Alliance commanders previously had complained to reporters in Afghanistan that U.S. airstrikes were not being targeted in ways that could help them defeat the Taliban for fear that the country would fall into civil war.
The Northern Alliance is a loose coalition of ethnic Uzbek, Tajik, and Hazara fighters who have clashed in the past with Afghanistan's largest ethnic group, the Pashtuns. Some analysts have urged the Bush administration not to pave the way for the Northern Alliance to take over without an agreement on governing the country between them and Pashtun representatives.
Gen. Newbold displayed "gun camera" video, however, showing two bombs knocking out a tank that had been positioned to defend the airfield at Mazar-e Sharif.
"The combat power of the Taliban has been eviscerated," he added.
Rebels' positions
Northern Alliance forces, who have battled the Taliban for control of the northern city for three years, were "at the edge" of an airfield six miles outside Mazar-e Sharif on Tuesday, he said. Whether the rebels take the city, he added, will "to a large degree" be "up to the Northern Alliance."
"It's loss to the Taliban would be a significant setback," Gen. Newbold said. Mazar-e Sharif is a crossroads astride Taliban military resupply routes, he said. Its loss to the rebels could embolden them and help demoralize the Taliban.
"I would say they're in danger of being cut off right now," he said of the Taliban troops defending the city, "and I would say their positions could be in jeopardy over the next couple of days, depending on what the Northern Alliance chooses to do."
The AC-130 Spectre gunships – slow-flying turboprop aircraft armed with rapid-fire cannons and Gatling guns – fired on a Taliban troop barracks and a headquarters in Kandahar, said the senior defense official.
'Psychological effect'
Their use signaled U.S. confidence that the Taliban's air defenses have been largely destroyed, though Gen. Newbold indicated that the planes flew above the range of shoulder-fired Stinger anti-aircraft missiles.
The Spectre's introduction into the conflict also indicated that U.S. commanders have decided to go after Taliban targets in urban areas. The precision of the AC-130's gunfire reduces the risk of hitting unintended targets, Gen. Newbold noted.
"It can be extremely precise," he said.
The AC-130 also was employed for its "psychological effect," the general said. U.S. soldiers in Vietnam, where the AC-130 was first used, nicknamed it "Puff the Magic Dragon" for its ability to strike fear in the heart of the enemy. One version of the plane is officially nicknamed "Spooky."
Rumbling through the night, the AC-130 is easy to hear but hard to see from the ground – until its guns spew a burst of cannon fire at a rate that can chew a building or a vehicle to shreds.
The gunship is also equipped with an array of television, infrared and radar sensors, and a crew of 17 who are able to identify and attack targets far more flexibly than a jet aircraft screaming through the sky at 400 mph or more.
The AC-130 is often used to support special operations troops but has been employed many times on its own as well.