March 3, 2002

US jets continue assault on suspected al-Qaeda hideout

Sunday March 3, 4:22 PM(AFP)

US warplanes launched a second day of bombing against suspected al-Qaeda positions in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan, but the ground assault has been
blocked by heavy resistance, a witness told AFP by telephone.

Gilani, the son of local warlord Padsha Khan, said five Afghan fighters have been killed in the fighting and that one US servicman was killed and another wounded.

US military officials have confirmed the death of one American and of two Afghans.

Gilani said the US bombing was continuing in the Amra mountains, where more than 2,000 members of the al-Qaeda network or the ousted Taliban are believed
holed up.

As he spoke by telephone, Gilani said he could see two US military helicopters and two B-52 jets bombarding the area.

Gilani said the Afghan fighters, who are assisted by some 30 US advisers, had come under heavy artillery attack by al-Qaeda forces.

"The ground advancement has been blocked and stopped," Gilani said.

"The Arab and al-Qaeda fighters are resisting fiercely. At the beginning we didn't think they would resist so much," he said.

He said some Arab and Chechen members of al-Qaeda were believed to be living in the mountains with their families.

Gilani said the troop advancement was also hampered by about one meter (more than three feet) of snow on the ground.

"But the Afghan fighters have been given very warm uniforms by the Americans so they don't mind the cold weather," he said.

The United States has said it has dropped a powerful thermobaric bomb on the suspected hideout area.

The bomb, never used before by the United States, produces rapidly expanding shock waves that can flatten anything near the epicenter of the aerosol fuel cloud.

The United States launched a military campaign in Afghanistan following the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, which left some 3,000
people dead and were allegedly masterminded by al-Qaeda.

The Taliban regime was routed late last year, but Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden have eluded capture.

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US uses bunker-busting 'thermobaric' bomb for first time

Sunday March 3, 3:12 PM(AFP)

A deadly bunker-busting bomb built on a principle roundly denounced by human rights groups in the past was used by US forces for the first time in Afghanistan, a
military official acknowledged.

The thermobaric bomb BLU-118S was among the more than 80 pieces of ordnance dropped on Saturday by US warplanes south of the Afghan city of Gardez
where intelligence had discovered a concentration of Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters.

"We used one thermobaric bomb in that operation," Navy Lieutenant Commander Matthew Klee, a spokesman for the Central Command, told AFP. "It was the
first time we used it."

The bomb, which belongs to the category of so-called fuel-air munitions, is capable of penetrating deep underground to reach hidden command bunkers or caves
and explode upon hitting its target, according to experts and defense officials.

Its explosive charge is designed in a way that allows the attacker to practically pulverize all occupants of the underground structure.

"It works as a combination of a shock wave and a fuel explosion," Klee explained. "The first explosion spreads flammable aerosols through the underground
complex. Then, the second ignites the fuel."

According to independent experts, the bomb, once detonated, produces rapidly expanding shock waves flattening anything near the epicenter of the aerosol fuel
cloud, and capable of causing extensive damage far beyond the immediate strike area.

In addition, shock waves produced by the BLU-118S are capable of navigating underground labyrinths and literally leaving no stone unturned, according to Klee.

"When the shock wave from a normal bomb hits a wall it stops," said the spokesman. "With BLU-118, the shock wave goes around the corner."

The Russian army reportedly used a version of a fuel-air bomb in the breakaway North Caucasus republic of Chechnya in late 1999, against mountain hideouts of
local separatist rebels, according to Human Rights Watch, an international monitoring organization.

In a letter sent in February 2000 to Vladimir Putin, then Russia's acting president, the group warned that fuel-air explosives, which are compared by some experts to
low-yield nuclear bombs, could cause massive loss of life especially in or near populated areas.

"Their use against populated areas would violate international norms on indiscriminate attacks," said Joost Hiltermann, Human Rights Watch's top weapons expert.

Klee said the US military was aware of Moscow's use in Chechnya of a bomb built on a similar concept but assured that the US BLU-118S "falls under the
guidelines of the Geneva Conventions."

The spokesman declined to disclose why the Pentagon had chosen to use such a powerful munition against a cave complex near Gardez, saying only that "a pocket
of Taliban and al-Qaeda resistance" had been discovered in the area.

Asked if Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind of the September 11 attacks, could be hiding in the area, Klee said, "We are not going to speculate. We don't
know where he is."

According to a statement released by the Central Command, fighting continued south of Gardez into early Sunday.

"Firefights have been intense at times in heavy combat actions," the statement said. "The exact size of the enemy forces occupying a series of cave complexes is not
known."

One US soldier and three Afghan troops have been killed so far in the operation, and an unspecified number of US and Afghan forces have been injured, according
to the command.

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US jets, ground forces in Afghan attack against al-Qaeda fighters

Sunday March 3, 7:57 AM(AFP)

Some 30 US military advisors and Afghan forces backed by US bombers were engaged in a massive assault against more than 2,000 suspected al-Qaeda and
Taliban fighters in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan, the son of a local warlord told AFP.

The US personnel accompanied some 1,000 local troops fighting al-Qaeda men holed up 20 kilometres (13 miles) from Gardez, capital of eastern Paktia province,
according to Gellani Khan Zadran, son of warlord Padsha Khan.

One of the US personnel was killed along with two Afghan fighters during the offensive, a US military spokesman said.

The attack began around 0200 GMT Saturday south of Gardez, said Colonel Rick Thomas, a spokesman for the Tampa, Florida-based US Central Command.

"We're conducting an operation south of Gardez and during the operation one of our service members and two friendly Afghan forces were killed," Thomas said,
confirming the offensive was supported by bombing raids against the suspected al-Qaeda base.

Arabs and other foreigners were among the 2,200-2,300 suspected Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters in the Arma mountains 20 kilometres south of Gardez, Gellani
Khan Zadran said.

Almost 1,000 anti-Taliban troops pitted against the al-Qaeda fighters had managed to advance three kilometres (two miles) on two of three fronts in the mountainous
terrain.

"But it's very difficult to fight and advance in this area," he said.

Fellow Afghan commander Wazir Khan Zadran, brother of warlord Khan, told Afghan Islamic Press that the ground attack from the north had achieved "no
significant progress" and met strong resistance.

At least three Afghan troops were killed and 20 injured by al-Qaeda fire, he said.

Gellani Khan Zadran told AFP several Arab and foreign opponents had also been killed or captured, without giving precise figures.

"There will be more severe resistance when we advance again," he said.

US planes continued to pound frontlines late Saturday, Wazir Khan Zadran told AIP.

"I am on a small hill in the area. I can see US jets still bombing the frontlines late in the evening," Zadran was quoted as telling the Pakistan-based news agency by
satellite telephone.

It was the first reported US bombing raid since a February 17 attack in eastern Afghanistan to defend "friendly" Afghan forces, and came after the Pentagon said
Friday that hundreds of hostile fighters had gathered near Gardez.

Afghan forces established three front lines surrounding the suspected al-Qaeda base after fighting erupted on the northern flank of the Arma mountains, AIP reported
earlier.

Forces from Gardez were at the northern front line, forces from eastern Khost province were on the eastern front while the third was occupied by troops from Urgun
in neighbouring Paktika province to the south, it said, quoting local sources.

The suspected Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters and their families had refused to leave or surrender before Afghan and US forces launched their air and ground attacks.

After the collapse of the Taliban regime in November, local commanders had asked the Arab and foreign fighters to leave because, "the Americans would accuse us
of working with them," Gellani Khan Zadran said.

"We asked them to leave cars and arms and leave, they did not accept. After that we told them that they could take their arms and cars and leave, but again they did
not listen to us."

Paktia was one of the most heavily bombed provinces in the US-led war against the Taliban and terror suspect Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

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Afghan officials vow to cut opium despite protests

Sunday March 3, 4:48 AM

By Andrew Marshall

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Destruction of Afghanistan's spring opium poppy crop will go ahead this month despite misgivings among officials from the
country's main growing area, the provincial government of Kandahar said on Saturday.

Engineer Mohammad Yusuf Pashtoon, spokesman for Kandahar Governor Gul Agha Sherzai, said a delegation from southwestern Helmand province, which
accounts for more than half Afghanistan's opium output, was in Kandahar to discuss eradication plans.

Pashtoon said some Helmand officials wanted compensation to be paid to farmers, but the Kandahar government says it is opposed to this in principle. Pashtoon
said dissent among some Helmand officials would not halt eradication.

"Definitely they are not in full agreement with such a thing. They were trying to ask if there was any possibility to compensate farmers," Pashtoon told reporters.

"We told them compensation does not mean a kind of bribe that we have to pay. Definitely we are concerned with their plight in general, but this does not mean we
should stop eradication."

In southern Afghanistan, which produces around 65 percent of the country's opium, the raw ingredient for heroin, a million farmers relied on opium production for
their livelihoods until Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar banned poppy cultivation in 2000.

Poppy growing has now resumed across the region, but the Kandahar administration says it will send tractors, backed with troops if necessary, to destroy the crop
this month.

"It will take at least two weeks. Maybe it will go into a third week," Pashtoon said, adding that while major resistance to the eradication programme was not
expected, many people were unhappy about the plan.

"We don't expect active opposition, but definitely people will be not happy with it," he said.

The U.N. Drug Control Programme said last week Afghanistan's cultivation of opium poppies has soared since the final collapse of the Taliban in December, and this
year's harvest could be 15 times higher than in 2001, with up to 1,900 to 2,700 tonnes of opium produced.

Pashtoon said a proposal that the poppy crop should be sprayed with chemicals to destroy it had been rejected, as it risked damaging other crops.

The local government says that while it is against paying farmers not to grow opium, it is working with the United Nations on a strategy to cushion the blow for
farmers faced with poverty if they cannot grow opium.

The U.N. says it is still working on the strategy. No concrete plans have yet been announced.

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US serviceman, two Afghan fighters killed in Afghanistan

Sunday March 3, 4:36 AM(AF)

The US military confirmed that Afghan and coalition forces were battling Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters in eastern Afghanistan, and said a US service member and
two allied Afghan soldiers had been killed.

"At approximately 9:00 pm EST yesterday (0200 GMT Saturday), Afghan and coalition forces began fighting al-Qaeda terrorists and non-Afghan Taliban south of
Gardez," the US Central Command said in a statement.

"US, coalition and Afghan forces have sustained casualties. Initial reports are that one US service member and two Afghan forces have been killed. An unspecified
number of US and Afghan forces have been injured," the statement said.

Although coalition forces are involved, "the main effort is the Afghan forces led by General Zia, General Kamal Khan Zadra and General Zakim Khan," it said.

The ground operation is being supported by bombing raids, said Colonel Rick Thomas, a spokesman for the Tampa, Florida-based Central Command.

The Command, which had refused to confirm the fighting for several hours after it was reported in the region, citing security concerns, gave no further details.

An Afghan source told AFP that some 30 US military advisors and about 1,000 Afghan forces backed by US bombers were engaged in fierce fighting against
suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan.

The US and local troops were fighting more than 2,000 suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters holed up 20 kilometers (13 miles) from Gardez, capital of Paktia
province, Gellani Khan Zadran, son of local warlord Padsha Khan, told AFP.

The suspected Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters were resisting, using mortars and missiles against his forces, he said.

The Afghan Islamic Press had earlier reported the US bombing raids on the suspected al-Qaeda base as well as the presence of 1,000 Afghan troops.

It was the first reported US bombing raid since a February 17 attack in eastern Afghanistan to defend "friendly" Afghan forces, and came after the Pentagon said
Friday that hundreds of hostile fighters had gathered near Gardez.

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U.S. soldier killed in Afghan ground offensive
By Charles Aldinger and Mohammad Bashir

Sunday March 3, 8:48 AM

WASHINGTON/GARDEZ, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Regrouping Taliban and al Qaeda fighters killed a U.S. soldier and wounded others on Saturday in repelling an
offensive that involved more Western coalition ground troops than any operation of the Afghan war.

The fatality, the second U.S. serviceman killed by enemy fire in the war, came as up to 5,000 die-hard al Qaeda and Taliban fighters fired rockets and artillery to
beat back outnumbered Afghan troops, who were aided by U.S. bombing and Western troops.

At least two Afghan soldiers were also killed in the offensive on snowy mountains in eastern Afghanistan that started late on Friday and continued -- after the retreat
-- with bombing that included rarely used "thermobaric" munitions.

Warplanes dropped two of the recently developed, extremely accurate, 2,000-pound (907-kg) bombs, which use an explosive mixture to create a high-pressure
blast that drives the air out of a cave and potentially suffocates those inside, U.S. defense officials said.

"U.S., coalition and Afghan forces have sustained casualties," the U.S. Central Command said in a statement from its headquarters in Tampa, Florida. "Initial reports
are that one U.S. service member and two Afghan forces have been killed. an unspecified number of U.S. and Afghan forces have been injured."

A U.S. defence official told Reuters Afghan forces led the attack south of Gardez in eastern Afghanistan's Paktia Province, but that more American and coalition
ground troops were deployed than in any offensive of the five-month-old war.

"It's a major operation, the biggest involving coalition troops of the war," said the official, who asked not to be identified and declined to provide numbers.

Other countries, including Britain, France, Australia and Canada have coalition forces involved in fighting the al Qaeda and Taliban in Afghanistan.

Afghan soldiers returning from the front said they launched the attack with a force of about 1,000, accompanied by about 60 U.S. advisers.

REGROUPING AFTER ROUT

In October, President George W. Bush launched a campaign to destroy al Qaeda in Afghanistan and oust their Taliban protectors in retaliation for the Sept. 11
attacks on America, blamed on Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network.

Al Qaeda and Taliban forces were routed in December in sweeping victories by U.S.-backed Afghan forces and this year there have been few major clashes and
little U.S. bombing.

But senior Pentagon officials told Reuters on Friday the United States for some time had been collecting intelligence on regrouping al Qaeda and Taliban in eastern
Afghanistan in rugged mountains honeycombed with caves.

The whereabouts of the war's main targets, bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, remain a mystery but they are not believed to be in the area of
the offensive.

Pakistan, which backs the U.S. war in Afghanistan, sealed its border to stop fighters escaping from the offensive.

STUBBORN RESISTANCE

The Afghan soldiers said they feared some of their units might have been cut off or surrounded in the battle about 20 miles ( 32 km) east of Gardez near the Pakistan
border.

"Some people think there are 3,000 fighters against us. Some think 5,000," one Afghan soldier involved in the fighting said.

A Reuters television cameraman saw flashes and loud explosions from B-52 bombing strikes. At least two U.S. Chinook military helicopters headed out of the battle
area in the mountain village of Shahi Ko in Arma district.

"There were 200 of us and five carloads of Americans with us. There were no civilian casualties, at least not in this area, Right now the whole campaign has
retreated. We failed and our campaign did not succeed," Rahmatullah, who was at the front, told Reuters.

Rahmatullah arrived back in Gardez with the body of 27-year-old Kalim, who was killed in the fighting.

He said the Afghan forces were falling back to Gardez in the face of stubborn resistance.

Rahmatullah and other soldiers said their opponents were in bunkers built during the Afghan mujahideen fight against occupying forces from the former Soviet Union
in the 1980s.

They said for weeks the cornered fighters had gone to local markets and bought up to 1,000 sacks of food supplies.

Gardez is about 95 miles (150 km) south of Kabul toward the Pakistan border, often mentioned as a likely hide-out for the two leaders. Paktia Governor Taj
Mohammad Wardak said he did not believe bin Laden and Mullah Omar were in the area.

While many civilians, Afghan troops and Taliban and al Qaeda fighters have died in the war, U.S. casualties have been relatively light.

In early January, a U.S. Army special forces soldier was killed in a firefight near Gardez. A CIA operative in Afghanistan was the first U.S. combat death when he
was killed during a prisoner uprising in late November.

In all, the Pentagon has confirmed about 20 U.S. military deaths in the campaign in Afghanistan and the surrounding region in support of the war on terror, mainly
due to aircraft crashes or accidents

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US jets bomb "al-Qaeda" base; war on terror expanded to Yemen

Sunday March 3, 1:00 AM(AFP)

US planes started intense bombing of a suspected al-Qaeda base in eastern Afghanistan as Afghan forces massed for a ground attack against remnants of terror
suspect Osama bin Laden's organisation.

The Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) quoting a spokesman for the provincial shura, or council, said the jets targeted the Arma hills some 40 kilometers (25 miles)
southeast of Gardez, the capital of Paktia province.

It was the first reported US bombing raid since a February 17 attack in eastern Afghanistan to defend "friendly" Afghan forces, and came after the Pentagon said that
hundreds of hostile fighters had gathered near Gardez.

The new wave of bombing started around 10:00 am (0530 GMT) and was continuing in the afternoon, the Pakistan-based news service said from Islamabad on
Saturday.

It quoted well-informed sources in Gardez as saying that more than 500 al-Qaeda fighters were concentrated in the hills of Arma.

The Pentagon had said it was unclear whether the fighters massed near Gardez were Taliban or al-Qaeda.

"We don't know the make-up, but they're certainly not friendly," said Brigadier General John Rosa, deputy director of current operations of the Joint Staff.

Local council chief Haji Saifullah said the al-Qaeda fighters had refused to surrender.

"We had sent several delegations to foreigners hiding in Arma ahead of the bombing runs to surrender peacefully but they refused," Saifullah told AIP.

He said no ground attack had yet been launched but heavy bombing was continuing.

AIP said more than 1,000 Afghan troops had reached the area for a possible ground battle with the al-Qaeda men.

An Afghan commander, Wazir Khan Zadran, told AIP by satellite telephone from the front line that at least 300 fighters under his command were ready for an
offensive while an almost equal number of other fighters had also reached the front line.

"We have been imparted training by the Americans for this fighting," he said.

"We have not yet started the ground assault but the al-Qaeda fighters were firing mortars on us from the hills."

AIP said two other Afghan commanders with about 500 soldiers each were also in the area.

In Washington meanwhile, officials said plans were underway to assist Yemen's military in the fight against terrorism.

"We are fighting terrorism all over the world, as we said we would," said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher.

A Yemeni official told AFP that about 100 US troops would travel to the country to train special anti-terror units, notably to track down al-Qaeda members.

A government spokesman in Sanaa stressed the US personnel would be trainers not combat troops, and that the total duration of the mission would not exceed two
months.

US plans to expand its war on terrorism to the former Soviet republic of Georgia have put pressure on President Vladimir Putin in what many in Russia see as further
erosion of Moscow's sphere of influence.

Tbilisi announced Friday that 200 US specialists would arrive later this month in Georgia to train anti-terrorist units for operations against suspected al-Qaeda
fighters in the Pankisi Gorge.

Confronting his critics, Putin offered full support to the US campaign to hunt down al-Qaeda fighters in the remote Georgian border region, saying that Moscow
backed "the fight against terrorism (in Georgia)... no matter who is taking part in it".