 |
|
Jets bomb suspected al Qaida hideout
11/15/2001
By ROBERT BURNS WASHINGTON — U.S. military planes bombed and destroyed a building where top
al-Qaida terrorist leaders were believed to have gathered, a U.S. official said
Wednesday. The strike on Tuesday also included a remote-control Predator spy aircraft
armed with missiles, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. American officials have not determined how many or which al-Qaida leaders
were in the building, the official said. The Tuesday raid is part of the military's increased focus on finding and
killing leaders of the terrorist network linked to the Sept. 11 attacks and the
Taliban militia that had sheltered them in Afghanistan. The commander of the
U.S. war in Afghanistan is preparing a new military plan to do that. American ground troops, now present in small numbers, still figure to play a
role. But the scale and nature of their involvement will depend on whether the
Taliban and al-Qaida collapse completely, flee the country or regroup to fight a
guerrilla war from caves and tunnels in the mountains. A senior U.S. official noted that Taliban defections in recent days have
numbered in the hundreds, providing American and anti-Taliban fighters with
significant new sources of intelligence. In coming weeks, the U.S. bombing campaign probably will be dramatically
scaled back, perhaps coinciding with the start of the Islamic holy month of
Ramadan this weekend, senior defense officials said Wednesday. The only remaining targets in the north are a few scattered pockets of
Taliban resistance. Pilots returning to the aircraft carrier USS Theodore
Roosevelt with their bombs still attached told reporters they refrained from
attacking in the south because it has become harder to tell friend from foe.
Bombing might be limited to cave complexes and remaining Taliban enclaves in
the north. Eliminating the Taliban as a support structure for al-Qaida was a key step,
but it leaves unresolved the question of how to track down Osama bin Laden and
other leaders of his al-Qaida network. It also requires consideration of an
international peacekeeping force to stabilize the country. It seems likely that the Bush administration will push for having troops from
Islamic countries perform the main peacekeeping work, supported by U.S. and
European logistics and communications. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld made clear Wednesday that the fight will
go on. ``We're making progress, but it's far from finished,'' he said in New York,
where he toured the World Trade Center ruins. ``And as the president said, we're
going to stick at it until it's done.'' The original attack plan written by Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of U.S.
Central Command, achieved its objective — the collapse of the Taliban — so
suddenly that the entire approach to Afghanistan needs to be rethought,
according to defense officials who discussed the matter on condition of
anonymity. Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem, deputy director of operations for the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, said he could not rule out that Taliban fighters retreating to
the south may be trying to find refuge in caves held by their home tribes and
regroup for more combat. He also said there were intelligence reports that some
may be fleeing into neighboring Pakistan. ``It's a confusing time,'' he said. Franks is considering a host of new possibilities in light of the Taliban
retreat, the fall of Kabul and the success of the northern alliance of
opposition forces in consolidating their territorial gains across northern
Afghanistan. Just last week Franks was under fire from critics who said he was moving too
slowly against the Taliban. Then the crossroads city of Mazar-e-Sharif fell and
the rout was on. Franks' new plan has yet to be written and must be approved by Rumsfeld and
President Bush. Among the main issues are: —How to pursue bin Laden and his key lieutenants, plus Taliban supreme leader
Mullah Mohammed Omar. Air power may still be important if they take to mountain
caves, but the effort also probably will require ground troops — American or
others. The prey have a suddenly smaller area of Afghanistan in which to hide,
although the cave and tunnel complexes are extensive and could prove hard to
penetrate. —The extent to which Afghan opposition groups will continue to be enlisted as
American proxies on the ground. —How to expand the humanitarian relief effort, which so far has been limited
to air drops of food rations by one or two Air Force C-17 cargo planes flying
daily from Germany. More than 1.4 million food packets have been dropped so far,
far less than needed for starving Afghans. Washington had hoped to open a land
route for humanitarian aid from bases in neighboring Uzbekistan, once
Mazar-e-Sharif fell, but now that the Taliban have fled the entire northern part
of the country it may be safe for civilian non-governmental organizations to
deliver the aid. —Whether and how to use air bases in the former Soviet province of
Tajikistan, on Afghanistan's northern border. U.S. military advisers who visited
three Tajik bases have told the Pentagon that at least one is usable for
military operations, but it is unclear whether that will prove necessary now
that the Taliban have fled the north. One or more Tajik bases might be used as a
transshipment point for humanitarian aid. —The number and kind of U.S. forces needed to establish military operations
at air bases inside Afghanistan formerly held by the Taliban — such as in the
Mazar-e-Sharif area — or threatened by Taliban artillery — such as the Bagram
air base just north of Kabul. These bases could be used as launching points for
commando raids against al-Qaida hide-outs, or for air operations.
AP Military Writer
Boarding an
F/A-18C
AP/Dave Martin
U.S.
soldiers
AP/Dave Martin