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US, Canadian Troops Battle al-Qaida Thu Mar 14, 1:59 PM ET
By PAUL HAVEN, Associated Press Writer
BAGRAM, Afghanistan (AP) - U.S. and Canadian troops battled al-Qaida fighters in the Shah-e-Kot area Thursday, killing three of them in a 90-minute gunbattle, according to Canadian reporters accompanying the troops.
The Canadian Press news agency quoted U.S. First Lt. Greg Darling of Warren Center, Penn., as saying coalition troops subdued the enemy with anti-tank weapons, heavy machine guns and small arms fire.
There were no U.S. or Canadian casualties, the agency reported.
The troops were conducting mop-up operations in the Shah-e-Kot area, which was abandoned by al-Qaida forces after heavy U.S. airstrikes. Forensics experts conducted DNA tests to make certain none of the terrorist organization's senior leaders was among the dead.
Neither Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) nor Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar was believed to be in the Shah-e-Kot valley March 2 when U.S. forces and their Afghan allies launched the biggest offensive of the 5-month-old war. But some corpses were so badly mangled that Maj. Gen. Frank L. Hagenbeck ordered the tests — just to be sure.
"Even if it's a long shot that maybe one of these al-Qaida leaders (was there), we want to go through every means we've got available to us to try to positively identify them," said Hagenbeck, the commander of all coalition troops in Afghanistan (news - web sites).
A U.S. officer estimated as many as 500 al-Qaida fighters were killed in the 12-day offensive in eastern Afghanistan. But Afghan troops said they found only 25 bodies in the initial sweep of the area. Others may be buried in caves that collapsed during the bombing.
Among the dead were "second and third tier" al Qaida leaders, though Hagenbeck did not explain what he meant.
Helicopters patrolled the valley looking for anyone who might have slipped through a coalition dragnet, sneaking out on smuggling routes and into neighboring Pakistan.
In Washington, Pentagon (news - web sites) spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said Wednesday that fighting had "mostly ended" and that troops were in the "exploitation phase," going cave to cave in search of bodies, weapons and intelligence information.
"We will have a long way to go in Afghanistan," she said.
Canadian forces took the lead in the mop-up work following the battle, with 500 troops landing high in the snowcapped mountains to search for al-Qaida fugitives, including Saif Rahman Mansour, the Taliban leader of the Shah-e-Kot fighters.
"We're right on their backs right now," Hagenbeck said of Rahman and his comrades.
A joint Canadian and American team moved systematically through the area, blasting cave entrances with grenade and machine gun fire to make sure no one was hiding inside.
Canadian officers said they found stacks of rocket-propelled grenades, grenade launchers and stacks of small arms ammunition hidden in the abandoned bunkers.
Most of the dead were non-Afghans, and included Chechens and Uzbeks as well as corpses with Mongol features, Hagenbeck said. U.S. officials said they were holding about 20 prisoners who were being interrogated.
Pentagon officials had repeatedly said the only choice facing the enemy troops was to "surrender or die," although Afghan commanders had been prepared to allow them to leave.
Leading the final assault were Afghan commanders Zia Lodin and Gul Haider, who had floated the idea of a negotiated exit.
"There are some fighters who have escaped — we think to Pakistan," said Shurkurullah, an Afghan commander who uses only one name.
"As Anaconda unfolded, we saw that the larger concentrations of Taliban and al-Qaida fighters began to disperse," said Vice Admiral Greg Maddison, a Canadian military official speaking in Ottawa. "And the area that we are engaged in is one of the areas where some of the fighters went to."
The number of enemy fighters still in the valley had dropped to "double digits," Hagenbeck said.
U.S. officials had hoped to prevent a repeat of the flight from Tora Bora, the cave complex U.S. troops hammered for weeks in December on suspicion that bin Laden was inside.
Afghan militias from the area conducted most of the ground fighting at Tora Bora, and U.S. authorities said they apparently let many al-Qaida fighters escape to Pakistan.
When Tora Bora was finally overrun, there was no sign of bin Laden.
Fighting died down during the last five days, enabling the United States to withdraw most of the estimated 1,400 troops from the 101st Airborne Division and the 10th Mountain Division who fought in the battle.
The coalition casualty toll stood at eight U.S. special forces troops and three Afghan allied fighters.
Hagenbeck also acknowledged that some civilians were killed in the fighting, though he did not say how many. He blamed the deaths on the al-Qaida fighters, who set up mortar positions between the houses in the hamlets of the Shah-e-Kot Valley.
"It's always tragic when noncombatants are killed in something like this," Hagenbeck said.
By Philip Blenkinsop
BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder told visiting Afghan leader Hamid Karzai on Thursday Germany did not wish to expand its peacekeeping role in Kabul but was ready to offer further economic assistance.
"If the United Nations (news - web sites) wishes, we can talk about an extension in time to the mandate...but I have emphasized we are skeptical about any expansion. We would not consider it possible to moving beyond Kabul, although we are not proposing a reduction of our troop presence," Schroeder told a news conference.
Karzai, who arrived in Berlin for a 48-hour visit on Wednesday, highlighted a century of strong Afghan-German ties. He has said he would welcome Germany, which has 850 troops stationed in Kabul, taking over the leadership of the international peacekeeping mission from Britain.
"If Germany takes this step...the whole of the Afghan people will be happy. Germany enjoys much respect and confidence in Afghanistan (news - web sites). There's no doubt about that," Afghanistan's interim leader said in the interview broadcast on German television late on Wednesday.
The two leaders met as top officials from Britain and the United States arrived in Ankara to encourage Turkey to take over command of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul.
"Germany is already playing the leading role in Kabul. If and when Turkey takes over, Germany will be number two," Karzai said on Thursday.
Schroeder said Germany and Afghanistan had signed a memorandum of understanding on Thursday aimed at tightening economic links and providing assistance.
The deal would help improve Afghanistan's infrastructure, especially telecommunications. Germany has also offered to provide economic advisers to Kabul.
Schroeder said Germany would support Afghanistan's schools and hospitals and would help build up a civilian police force.
By Mehrdad Balali and Christine Hauser
BAGRAM AIR BASE/SHAHI KOT, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghan troops found Egyptians, Sudanese, Indonesians and other foreigners among 20 dead Taliban or al Qaeda fighters discovered on Thursday in caves after the biggest battle of the Afghan war.
The commander of U.S. forces on the ground, General Frank Hagenbeck, said he believed Chechens, Uzbeks and Chinese were also among hundreds of militants killed in the 12-day Battle of Shahi Kot in eastern Afghanistan (news - web sites).
He said troops had established that Taliban leader Mullah Omar and al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) were not in the battle.
The grinding clashes ended on Wednesday when U.S., Canadian and Afghan troops overran rebel caves and trenches near Gardez, capital of Paktia province, about 95 miles south of Kabul.
"We have killed some second or third al Qaeda leadership. Big names were not in the valley. But we have indications where they are and I can assure you we will track them down and kill them," Hagenbeck said at Bagram near Kabul, the control point for the operation.
"We are not gonna let loose of these guys. We got good leads on them. We track them 24 hours a day. We have the means and the patience. We do all it takes to get them."
WEALTH OF INFORMATION
Hagenbeck said troops had found a treasure trove of intelligence information in wary searches carried out so far of mined and booby-trapped caves burrowed into mountains that soar 12,000 feet high.
"We found bomb-making devices, large caches of weapons, manuals on how to attack individuals and how to blow up a bridge," he said.
At the village of Shahi Kot, now a base for Afghan troops and U.S. special forces, Commander Mohammad Ismail said he saw 20 dead rebels in a trench and cave network.
"I have seen their bodies and I have got their ID cards," he told Reuters. "The Arabs were from Sudan and Egypt and there was an Indonesian identity card. There were also Chechens."
"Some were in trenches and some in cave bunkers with lots of domestic possessions, like tea kettles and every kind of equipment for living," he added.
In the distance, there was the sound of an occasional single explosion as troops fired mortar bombs or threw hand grenades into caves before entering them.
Ismail said his troops suspected many Taliban/al Qaeda escaped, possibly to mountains 12 miles away.
The U.S. military says it killed 800 to 1,000 militants during the campaign, although Afghan commanders like Ismail have expressed concerns many slipped across the rugged mountains toward the nearby Pakistan border.
"We believe we killed hundreds, but not many bodies have been found," Major Bryan Hilferty said.
"I think it is because we dropped very big bombs on them, so it is not like they were in a car crash," he added. "There are many caves we have shut down and they are in there."
During a fierce air bombardment of the Taliban and al Qaeda positions, U.S. planes used a new "thermobaric" 2,000-pound bomb which creates a blast that drives air out of a cave to suffocate those inside.
CALLS FOR COFFINS
Hagenbeck said intercepted radio traffic showed the fighters asking local supporters to send coffins.
"On the fourth day, they asked to bring trucks and equipment to extract them," he said. "They never got in. Very few al Qaeda managed to escape."
There was no news on the whereabouts of Saif Rahman Mansour, leader of the roughly 1,000 rebels who held the U.S. and Afghan forces at bay.
"He is either killed or has fled to Pakistan," said Gulbuddin, an aide to Afghan Defense Minister Mohammad Fahim.
Gulbuddin said Mansour, in his 40s, had been a leader of the Taliban in the area. His father was killed in fighting between Afghan warlords before the Taliban ended the civil war and took power in the capital Kabul in 1996.
Canadian troops played a leading role in the final day of the battle on Wednesday, helping to capture and secure a strategic ridge known as the Whale or Whaleback, in an operation code-named "Harpoon."
"For the first time since the Korean war, Canadian soldiers were deployed yesterday in a combat operation," said Canadian spokesman Lieutenant Luc Sharron.
"We are going there to destroy and kill remaining pockets of Taliban and al Qaeda in the mountain regions of Paktia," he told reporters at Bagram.
"The Canadian commander has 500 men under his command, including an American rifle company," Sharron said. "We are proud to be here, we are making history."
Afghan soldiers are also involved in the new operation
Hundreds of Canadian troops have begun searching caves in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan, where al-Qaeda and Taleban fighters held out against American-led forces for almost two weeks.
A spokesman said they were looking for information that may have been left by the guerrillas, and for survivors.
Few bodies of enemy fighters have been found, although US officials believe hundreds have been killed.
We are conducting sensitive site exploitation, looking for information, looking in the caves
US military spokesman
It is thought some may have been buried as caves collapsed under heavy aerial bombardment.
The new operation is the first led by the Canadians in the five-month-old Afghan campaign.
US and Afghan troops finally overran the cave and trench complex on Tuesday and Wednesday after fierce resistance.
Fears of booby-traps and land-mines have also delayed searches of the area.
'Operation Harpoon'
About 500 Canadian infantry troops are taking part in the operation "designed to destroy and the remaining pockets of Taleban and al-Qaeda elements" in the Shahi Kot Valley and the Arma mountains, a Canadian military spokesman said.
US helicopters ferried in the Canadian troops to the Shahi Kot area
US forces spokesman Major Bryan Hilferty said the Canadians had taken over from the Americans on the ground.
A total of about 1,000 troops are now involved - about half Canadians with a US rifle company, the other half allied Afghans.
"We are conducting sensitive site exploitation, looking for information, looking in the caves," Major Hilferty said.
He said the caves were probably booby-trapped.
The new action, called Operation Harpoon, is part of Operation Anaconda - the 13-day US-led offensive against the last known stronghold of Taleban and al-Qaeda fighters.
Possible escapes
Afghan commanders have expressed concern that many militants may have slipped away across the rugged mountains.
Major Hilferty said he had "no direct intelligence" about possible escapes but "obviously some have probably escaped".
The reason that not many enemy bodies had been found was "probably because we dropped very big bombs on them... also there were many in caves and we believe that we have shut the caves with them in there", he suggested.
The spokesman added that Afghan forces in the battle area had been "burying all the bodies they found".
Fewer than 20 people have been captured in Operation Anaconda - but none are thought to be senior Taleban or al-Qaeda leaders.
The offensive has seen some of the bloodiest fighting of the US-led anti-terror campaign. Eight US servicemen have died and 49 have been wounded in the action so far. Several allied Afghans have also been killed.
USA TODAY
SHAH-E-KOT VALLEY, Afghanistan -- From the pilot's seat of his giant CH-47 Chinook helicopter Wednesday, Chief Warrant Officer-2 Jeffrey Fichter could see a welcome sight.
America's Afghan allies were occupying the top of a twin-humped mountain ridge that U.S. forces have dubbed ''The Whale.'' The friendly forces, thanks to 12 days of bombing by U.S. jets, had been able to push an estimated 100 to 200 remaining al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters from the high ground, giving the U.S-led anti-terror coalition forces control of this battleground.
But Fichter also knew that the U.S. troops he has been ferrying back and forth from Bagram air base still have incredibly dangerous work to do, even though they've won the campaign known as Operation Anaconda.
Those U.S. forces, together with Canadian troops, have begun searching an undetermined number of caves that snake and twist beneath The Whale and surrounding mountains. They're looking for al-Qaeda stragglers, at altitudes of 8,000 to 10,000 feet and in terrain littered with land mines and booby traps.
''It's potentially very dangerous, but we hope the payoffs are worth the risks,'' says Maj. Bryan Hilferty, an Army spokesman at Bagram.
American officials say they have already accomplished a lot here. They estimate that more than 500 enemy fighters have been killed. Lt. Col. David Gray, an operations officer with the Army's 10th Mountain Division, says the dead were primarily non-Afghans -- members of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network who came to Afghanistan to train. ''What we have done,'' Gray says, ''is denied al-Qaeda of its most important, well-trained fighters.''
The view from Fichter's helicopter Wednesday on the one-hour flight from Bagram provided an aerial perspective on the land where eight Americans, at least three allied Afghans and the enemy fighters died in battle. From a distance, the scenery was beautiful. Snowcapped mountains were set against a clear blue sky. Up close, the landscape was mostly barren. At lower elevations, the bare ground was a dusty brown.
Villages that Fichter and his crew of four others passed over were small clusters of mud-walled huts. Occasionally, packs of dogs could be seen running. A few farmers were tilling the ground with hand tools. A couple of shepherds with small flocks were spotted. So were a few children, running in apparent fear of the helicopters (Fichter's was joined by two other Chinooks) passing 100 feet overhead.
There were some reminders of the fighting. A few burned-out vehicles. A cemetery of fresh graves.
Fichter's crew -- a co-pilot and three gunners -- was not challenged as it flew but remained alert. Two gunners on each side and one at the rear exit ramp were poised in case of trouble. ''We don't want to get complacent'' just because al-Qaeda and Taliban forces have apparently been routed, Fichter says.
But the only Afghan soldiers they saw were those on The Whale and a convoy of troops commanded by Gen. Zia Lodin, a U.S. ally. Zia's tanks and armored vehicles were rolling across this valley.
Wednesday's mission for Fichter and his crew from the 101st Airborne Division was to pick up 40 U.S. troops who needed a lift back to Bagram. That job was accomplished quickly, with no trouble. Fichter landed and in just four minutes was back in the air with his 40 passengers on board.
March 14, 2002
BODY COUNT
By ERIC SCHMITT and THOM SHANKER
The Battlefield: Details of Victory Are Unclear but It Is Celebrated Nonetheless (March 14, 2002)
Marooned Taliban Tick Off Grim Hours in an Afghan Jail (March 14, 2002)
ASHINGTON, March 13 — The Pentagon says it is not counting the bodies of opposing fighters in the latest battle in Afghanistan.
But nearly every day since the American-led offensive began, the military has produced a classified estimate for senior officials of Al Qaeda and Taliban dead.
At the start of the week, the Pentagon estimate listed the confirmed number of dead Arab, Chechen and other fighters for Al Qaeda at 517. Another 250 were believed to have been killed, but the deaths were listed as unconfirmed. By today, the total estimate had risen above 800, according to one official.
"Those numbers are all extremely fuzzy," said one senior military officer.
The body-count estimates are just that. They are based on reports from Apache helicopter pilots who often spot fighters before firing missiles, on gun-camera film taken by combat aircraft, on video images from unmanned Predator drones and on reports by Special Forces troops on the ground, among others.
Even though helicopters and high- technology surveillance systems can blow away some of the fog of war, military officials acknowledge that these sources have limitations. Cameras and pilots cannot peer into caves, for instance, or assess the number of dead in the two villages that were laid waste by bombs.
Nor is an American pilot's count of opposing fighters in a mountain redoubt before he fires always completely certain. Even if it is, there may be little in the way of remains.
To list a Qaeda fighter as "confirmed dead" does not necessarily mean that the military has a body. Journalists who toured the Shah-i- Kot Valley, where the recent fighting has taken place, saw only three bodies today.
Still, the estimates exist, despite the assertions of Pentagon officials that they are not in the body-count business.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has made it clear to his senior advisers and military commanders that he is against releasing the numbers, fearing any echoes from Vietnam of "body counts" — often inflated — that haunted his predecessors.
"I don't do body counts," Mr. Rumsfeld said last week in a CBS News interview. "This country tried that in Vietnam, and it didn't work. And you've not heard me speculate on that at all, and you won't."
The morning briefing given to Gen. Tommy R. Franks, the commander of the war in Afghanistan, does not contain precise enemy casualties, said a spokesman at the Central Command, Maj. Brad Lowell. "The Cinc" — General Franks — "relies on his commanders on the ground to make those assessments," Major Lowell said.
Some senior Pentagon officials expressed irritation that the commander of operation in Shah-i-Kot, Maj. Gen. Franklin L. Hagenbeck, spoke so explicitly about Al Qaeda deaths in the campaign's opening days. But other senior officers said his candor shed welcome light on a complicated operation and in no way compromised the mission.
"Our estimation is that in the last 24-48 hours, the number of enemy that we fought over time is somewhere in the neighborhood of 600 to 700 enemies," General Hagenbeck, commander of the 10th Mountain Division, said on March 6. "Conservatively speaking right now, I'm convinced from the evidence that I have seen that we have killed at least half of those enemy forces."
Military commanders say that unlike in Vietnam, they are not using the closely held figures to measure their battlefield achievements. Instead, the estimates of enemy dead are used to help plan operations.
"This is less about the numbers than about assessing the enemy's strength," said one senior officer.
Barry R. McCaffrey, a retired Army general and highly decorated Vietnam veteran, said gauging enemy deaths is just one component that field commanders consider when weighing an opponent's effectiveness.
"What you do is estimate enemy casualties," General McCaffrey said. "You also ask: `Did we bust them up? Did they leave the area with or without their weapons?' "
In the latest campaign, the fierce fighting and rugged terrain have for the most part kept reporters at a distance. But in any case it is impossible to count the dead in a cave that has been sealed by bombs, or those in two Qaeda-controlled villages, Sirkankel and Marzak, that were leveled by bombs.
In fact, Pentagon officials said, most of deaths of opposing fighters were from high-powered ordnance — satellite-guided 2,000-pound bombs and Hellfire missiles — as opposed to firefights at close range. In this 12- day operation alone, American warplanes have dropped more than 2,500 bombs.
Such munitions often leave little behind.
In cases where there was a body, a Pentagon official said, Al Qaeda fighters may have placed many of their fallen comrades in makeshift graves, following the Muslim custom of burying the dead within 24 hours.
Further complicating the count is the confusion over the number of fighters who joined the battle.
The Pentagon now acknowledges that it badly underestimated the size of Al Qaeda forces entering the battle. After initially putting the count at 150 to 200 fighters, American intelligence officials now believe as many as 1,000 were holed up in the battle zone. Some poured in from nearby redoubts after the operation started, officials said.
Of the 1,000 or so original fighters, Pentagon officials estimate that about 100 remain in ever smaller pockets of resistance. Another 100 have probably fled over mountain trails, military officials said.
Brig. Gen. John W. Rosa, deputy director of current operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, acknowledged that small numbers of fighters may have slipped out, but he said unlike at Tora Bora in December, the American-led coalition had largely sealed off the area.
"We've got troops in position in the high ground guarding the escape routes, and I think we're doing a pretty good job," he said.
March 14, 2002
Marooned Taliban Tick Off Grim Hours in an Afghan Jail
By DEXTER FILKINS
Maxim Marmur/Associated Press, for The New York Times
About 3,000 Taliban and Qaeda prisoners have been at Jowzjan Jail, in Shibarghan, since they surrendered four months ago during the American-backed campaign in Kunduz.
Body Count: Taliban and Qaeda Death Toll in Mountain Battle Is a Mystery (March 14, 2002)
The Battlefield: Details of Victory Are Unclear but It Is Celebrated Nonetheless (March 14, 2002)
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HIBARGHAN, Afghanistan, March 10 — On most days, lunchtime at the Jowzjan Jail opens with a macabre display of the sick and dying Taliban prisoners, carried from their cells and laid in the dirt for a few moments of fresh air and sun.
Splayed in silence atop baby blue blankets, the men appear dead. But then a limb moves or a groan rises, and the guards understand that this prisoner or that is well enough to be hauled back inside when lunchtime is done.
"Every 15 days or so, one of them dies," said Gen. Jura Beg, the warden. "We don't have enough food for them anymore. We don't have medicine."
So unfolds the fate of the 3,000 Taliban prisoners brought here after the American-backed campaign against them. Most were captured in Kunduz, where thousands of Taliban and Al Qaeda soldiers threatened to fight to the death but surrendered instead.
At the time, there was talk of handing the men over to the United Nations. There were promises, by Afghans with little experience in the matter, that the prisoners would be treated handsomely.
Today, nearly four months later, most such talk has died away. With the war still smoldering and Afghanistan led by a fledging government, few people of consequence appear to have time for the prisoners now. The Americans were here in the beginning, photographing and tagging the inmates, trying to select the worst ones. They took about 100 to Guantánamo, the American base in Cuba, Afghan officials here said. The Uzbek government took at least 10 of its citizens. The warden, in a traditional act of mercy, freed about 250, most of them either very old or very sick, before the Muslim Id al-Adha holiday last month.
The remaining prisoners, all of them Afghan or Pakistani, appear to have been largely forgotten.
"Everyone thinks: maybe today, maybe tomorrow," said Makhsood Khan, a 26-year-old Pakistani captured at Kunduz. "We count the days."
Standing outside his cell the other day, Mr. Khan reeked of the narrow cell he shares with about 50 of his unbathed brethren, who pressed their faces against the barred door to listen in silence.
Mr. Khan, like so many of those captured with the Taliban, portrayed himself as a largely innocent man, tumbled about by historical currents he could neither resist nor comprehend.
Shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, Mr. Khan said, he was enlisted by his cousin, Nasir Ahmed, a journalist for a militant newspaper called "Islamic Attack," to join him on a trip to Afghanistan. His cousin needed a photographer.
Mr. Khan, an illiterate auto mechanic from Islamabad, Pakistan, said he had seen in his cousin's invitation a way to fulfill his duty to be a good Muslim.
"I was a photographer for the jihad," Mr. Khan explained. "Jihad has many aspects: fighting, newspapers and taking photographs."
Mr. Khan, and the roughly 800 Pakistanis imprisoned here, face an especially uncertain future. As foreigners who took part in a civil war, they will have to depend not just on the persistence of their own government to get them out but also on the mercy of the victors to let them go. Some Afghan officials have talked of putting the men on trial in Afghanistan, or of turning them over to Pakistan, once the Taliban's chief patron.
General Beg, the warden and a friend of Abdul Rashid Dostum, the Uzbek warlord who controls the prison, said no decision has been made about the prisoners' fate.
"No one from the government has visited here," he said
From his office overlooking the prison yard, General Beg sighed like a man who had long ago given up. He has 3,000 men in 40 cells, in a prison designed to hold about 800. He has had to reduce food rations for the prisoners, he said, because of government cutbacks. Lacking medicine, the handful of doctors available here are able to do little more than provide comfort for those who have fallen ill.
The drinking water, the general said, comes out of a nearby stream. "It is full of garbage," he said.
A tour of the prison grounds seems to confirm General Beg's bleak assessment.
Each cell is dark, narrow and deep, holding dozens of men, many of whom can be seen lying on dirty mattresses or huddled in blankets in a corner. The light is wan, and the corridors are open to the elements. Guards pour water from pitchers into mouths agape on the other side of the bars. The heads of many of the men are bare, shaved to discourage the lice that have run rampant through the crowded cells.
"Some people sleep, some read the Holy Koran, some people pick lice off their body," Mr. Khan said.
In January, a team from Physicians for Human Rights, which is based in Boston, found an epidemic of dysentery and jaundice, the latter indicative, the group said, of hepatitis A. The group said the conditions at Jowzjan were in "grave violation of international standards for the treatment of prisoners" and called on the United States to ensure that conditions improve.
Exactly how many prisoners have died here seems a mystery. General Beg estimated that "six or seven" had died within the prison walls, most of them from diseases they had brought into the jail. Physicians for Human Rights quoted the warden as saying in January that "many, many prisoners had already died," mainly from dysentery, some from pneumonia. The prisoners themselves whispered to a visitor that one spate of food poisoning alone had felled six of their comrades last month.
The food, when it finally came, was delivered in large communal bowls to feed as many as 20 men at a time. There were no plates and no forks. The usual fare is a thick stewy dish of rice and carrots called shola. The men sneered at the concoction through the bars, but lunged at it with their dirty hands when they were finally given the chance.
As the men fought over bits of rice, the guards disappeared inside for the cleaning of the cells. Moments later, they re-emerged with a wheelbarrow full of human waste and newly shaved hair. Just outside the cell, 12 men lay on the ground at odd angles, wrapped in blue blankets.
After a time, the guards rolled up two of them and carried them away.
An Afghan prisoner, Enayatullah, looked on. He figured that it was the food, once again, that had taken down his comrades — that and the overcrowding, he said. The cell in which he and his sick comrades were confined was ordinarily packed so tightly, he said, that he was often unable to stretch his legs.
"There is not enough room for everyone to sleep at once," he said.
Mr. Enayatullah, a Taliban soldier captured at Kunduz who uses only one name, said he was trying to be patient in his wait to go home to his village in southern Afghanistan. But as the days grew longer, he said, more and more prisoners were beginning to realize that they may be in for tougher times yet.
"The summer is what we are worried about," he said. "Can you imagine how hot the cell will be in the summer?"
By Peter Baker and Susan B. Glasser
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, March 14, 2002; Page A01
SHAHIKOT, Afghanistan, March 13 -- U.S. and Afghan forces declared victory today in their campaign to cleanse this mountainous region of al Qaeda and Taliban forces, sweeping through the Shahikot Valley and effectively ending the biggest and deadliest battle of the war for American troops.
The 12-day-long offensive known as Operation Anaconda destroyed the two radical Islamic groups' last known fortified stronghold in Afghanistan. U.S. officials reported the enemy death toll in the hundreds -- though the estimate could not be confirmed -- while eight Americans and three Afghans were killed.
Although some officials cautioned that further fighting could lie ahead as coalition forces hunt for foes that may have escaped the battle, exuberant Afghan commanders said the operation amounted to the finale of a five-month war launched last fall in retaliation for the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Hundreds of U.S. and Afghan troops today began packing up to leave.
"The war is over," said Gul Haidar, the top commander of Afghan forces here. "In my opinion, there is no more al Qaeda in Afghanistan."
"This is nothing if not an incredible success," Maj. Bryan Hilferty, a U.S. military spokesman, said at Bagram air base north of Kabul, the Afghan capital. "We've killed hundreds of al Qaeda" while sustaining "very light casualties" on the U.S. side. "We've taken out a hard-core center of the al Qaeda leadership."
Yet despite today's triumphal march into this demolished hamlet of red-mud houses where al Qaeda and Taliban guerrillas once took refuge, officials believe that many escaped and headed toward Pakistan to the east or northward toward other potential safe havens in Afghanistan. Scores and perhaps hundreds eluded allied checkpoints and remained at large, possibly including their leader, Saeef Rahman Mansour, a Taliban commander.
The combat zone provided ample signs today of the power of 12 days of bombardment by U.S. warplanes, which leveled buildings, blasted pickup trucks, shredded trees, collapsed caves and literally blew some enemy fighters out of their shoes.
Less numerous, however, were indications of the staggering loss of life that U.S. officials say their enemies suffered. Along a ridge near the village of Shahikot, three bodies lay covered with flies, decaying in the desert sun, but there was no evidence to confirm that 700 fighters had been killed, as the Pentagon has claimed. Gen. Zia, an Afghan commander, said only 150 to 200 bodies have been found.
Afghan troops said they took 35 prisoners and turned them over to the Americans; a U.S. spokesman put the number at fewer than 20. "They're being interrogated, exploited for information to find out exactly what was in here," said a U.S. officer who identified himself only as Mark.
Shahikot appeared ravaged and uninhabitable. Virtually no structure in the village evaded U.S. bombs and most have crumbled into rubble. All that was left to indicate Shahikot once served as a base for terrorists on the run were prosaic items strewn about: a couple of juice boxes, a toothbrush and tube of Ciptodent toothpaste.
Allied forces have yet to make a systematic search of the extensive cave network used by al Qaeda and Taliban guerrillas to hide from pursuers. Mark, the U.S. officer, estimated there were "a couple dozen" caves in the mountains overlooking Shahikot, mostly about 10-by-10 foot and 20 feet deep, although some might be large enough to park a truck in. Specialists will be sent in first to defuse any land mines, booby traps or other surprises left by retreating enemy fighters.
"We're still searching for caves," said another U.S. officer, who did not give his name. "We're sure they're there, but we're still looking."
Operation Anaconda got underway on March 2 after tribal elders informed the U.S. military that Mansour and hundreds of other armed men had occupied Shahikot and forced or paid its residents to leave. U.S. officers hired, trained and paid Afghan soldiers to participate in the operation and deployed significant numbers of American ground troops for the first time in the Afghan war.
The operation got off to a shaky start when a nighttime assault on Shahikot turned into a headlong retreat in the face of enemy mortar fire that killed an American soldier and several Afghans. U.S. commanders gave up on the idea of a frontal ground assault at that time, instead sending warplanes to pound the enemy and establishing a "security belt" to prevent escape.
Continued guerrilla fighting claimed seven more American lives when enemy fighters forced down two helicopters. The eight Americans killed in action in the battle of Shahikot eclipsed the battlefield death toll for the rest of the Afghan war. Three Afghans have been reported killed and 80 American and Afghan soldiers were wounded.
The operation in Shahikot wrapped up Tuesday when Zia, commander of the U.S.-trained Afghan soldiers, entered the Shahikot Valley from the north with about 1,000 men, while Haidar, leading a similar number of Afghan militiamen, approached from the south. They captured a ridge on the west side of the valley dubbed "the whale" with little resistance, suggesting that the enemy had disappeared days before the final push.
Although the valley was secured by today, American AH-1 Cobra helicopters circled everywhere, on the lookout for remaining pockets of resistance. Ground patrols snaked along mountain ridges, prowling for bodies or live enemies. U.S. warplanes could still be heard flying overhead into the night, although it was not clear if they were dropping bombs.
But many troops began to pull out. Haidar said his men would all move back to Gardez, the provincial capital, and await further instruction from Kabul, leaving Zia to mop up in the valley over the next few days.
Hilferty, the U.S. spokesman, noted that there were still more than 1,500 coalition troops here, but said the operation was near completion. "It is winding down," he said. Mark, the officer at Shahikot, said some U.S. soldiers would remain in Paktia province for 35 to 40 days.
Most of the troops from the 101st Airborne Division left Shahikot on Tuesday, according to soldiers at Bagram, and the pullout of the 10th Mountain Division was largely completed today. A contingent of Canadian and Australian soldiers has gone in to replace the Americans. "Everybody will be out of here, task force-wise, in a day or two," said a U.S. helicopter pilot who has brought troops back from Shahikot.
Returning soldiers were reporting a battlefield without any more battle. "It's pretty quiet," Sgt. Rudy Romero said just a few hours after coming back from eight days in Shahikot. "The Air Force took care of everyone who was left in the valley."
Detritus of battle lay scattered through the Shahikot Valley, a remote, desolate territory about 20 miles south of Gardez. In the village, a box of green and yellow canisters sat on the side of the dirt road. A few hundred yards away were three bodies, all Chechens, judging by appearance, Afghan soldiers said.
One was covered by a black blanket, while a pair of blue gloves, a roll of toilet paper and some gauze lay nearby. His hand stuck out from beneath the blanket, curled upward unnaturally and blackened from an explosion. On his wrist was a digital watch that was still working; by the end of the day, it would be stolen.
Another body was covered in rags. A shoe lay 10 feet away. The third body appeared to be blown apart, beyond recognition. A sneaker lay 10 feet from that one, and a second sneaker 10 more feet away. Nearby were a few personal items -- a hand-scrawled list in Russian of ammunition, a Koran.
Amid this landscape, an Afghan soldier at a nearby checkpoint found a hopeful conclusion. "Al Qaeda," he said, "is finished."
Glasser reported from Bagram.
© 2002 The Washington Post Company
By Mark Matthews
Sun National Staff
Originally published March 14, 2002
WASHINGTON - Uzbekistan's president warned yesterday of future instability in neighboring Afghanistan, describing a country where warlords are resurgent, weapons are widespread and hidden al-Qaida and Taliban fighters could re-emerge to cause trouble.
"I personally do not have much optimism about future prospects for Afghanistan," said President Islam A. Karimov, who was in Washington on an official visit that marked a major improvement in his country's relations with the United States.
His former Soviet republic has been a key supporter of the American-led war to topple the Taliban regime and wipe out Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network in Afghanistan, providing an airfield used by U.S. forces to launch operations.
Karimov credited the war with having "saved" his country from Afghan-based extremists and said the "first phase" of the U.S.-led military campaign had been undeniably successful.
But the current effort to bring stability to the country, rebuild it and launch the process of choosing a future government is "much more difficult," he said.
Afghanistan is led by an interim government headed by Hamid Karzai and plans to form a permanent government through a traditional tribal process.
Karimov said his country was "preoccupied" with the question of who would come to power and whether Afghanistan would become a source of future threats to Uzbekistan.
He said warlords, not any central authority, hold the true power in Afghanistan and a "great number of weapons" had been accumulated in the country.
He asked rhetorically where the Taliban and "bandits" tied to al-Qaida had fled and "where will they surface tomorrow."
The United States, he said, "shouldn't lose control" of what it had achieved so far in disrupting al-Qaida.
He said he would not urge the United States to participate in an international peacekeeping force, now operating in the Afghan capital, Kabul, but instead conduct "special operations" when needed.
He said American forces were welcome to continue using bases in Uzbekistan for as long as necessary to conduct the war on terrorism and said his country would consider cooperation that went beyond a military agreement reached with the Pentagon.
But he added that Uzbekistan, unlike the former Soviet republic of Georgia, does not need any U.S. help quelling insurgencies inside the country.
Karimov's crackdowns on opponents have drawn sharp criticism from human rights groups and from the United States.
The State Department's latest human-rights report describes Uzbekistan as an "authoritarian state" with a "very poor" record on rights.
It described deaths in police custody as well as torture, beatings and harassment. Karimov's election and re-election were neither free nor fair, the report said.
Karimov acknowledged that "we do have problems with human rights" and said, "I feel obliged to respect" the State Department report. An agreement reached with the United States commits Uzbekistan to improve its human rights, he said.
Copyright © 2002, The Baltimore Sun
The world first became aware of the Taleban in 1994 when they were appointed by Islamabad to protect a convoy trying to open up a trade route between Pakistan and Central Asia.
Years of conflict have made gun culture the norm in Kabul
The group - comprised of Afghans trained in religious schools in Pakistan along with former Islamic fighters or mujahedin - proved effective bodyguards, driving off other mujahedin groups who attacked and looted the convoy.
They went on to take the nearby city of Kandahar, beginning a remarkable advance which led to their capture of the capital, Kabul, in September 1996.
Anti-corruption
The Taleban's popularity with many Afghans initially surprised the country's warring mujahedin factions.
In spite of military victories the Taleban have yet to achieve the international recognition they crave
As ethnic Pashtuns, a large part of their support came from Afghanistan's Pashtun community, disillusioned with existing ethnic Tajik and Uzbek leaders.
But it was not purely a question of ethnicity. Ordinary Afghans, weary of the prevailing lawlessness in many parts of the country, were often delighted by Taleban successes in stamping out corruption, restoring peace and allowing commerce to flourish again.
Their refusal to deal with the existing warlords whose rivalries had caused so much killing and destruction also earned them respect.
Islamic state
The Taleban said their aim was to set up the world's most pure Islamic state, banning frivolities like television, music and cinema.
The Taleban took control of Kabul in 1996
Their attempts to eradicate crime have been reinforced by the introduction of Islamic law including public executions and amputations.
A flurry of regulations forbidding girls from going to school and women from working quickly brought them into conflict with the international community.
Such issues, along with restrictions on women's access to health care, have also caused some resentment among ordinary Afghans.
Extending control
The Taleban now control all but the far north of the country, which is the last stronghold of the ethnic Tajik commander Ahmed Shah Masood.
With 90% of the country under their control, the Taleban have continued to press claims for international recognition.
But the Afghan seat at the United Nations continues to be held by former President Burhanuddin Rabbani.
The UN sanctions which have now been imposed on the country make it even less likely that the Taleban will gain that recognition.
The sanctions are intended to force the Taleban to hand over the Saudi-born militant Osama Bin Laden, who is accused by the United States of plotting the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed more than 250 people.
The Taleban say that Osama Bin Laden is a guest in their country, and they will not take action against him.
Afghanistan has suffered 20 years of war, and this year has brought the worst drought in decades.
There is little sign that sanctions will change the Taleban's policies, or weaken their position within the country.
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