U.S. Begins Ground Campaign
Oct. 20 -- U.S. special forces have carried out their first ground assault of the military campaign, striking at a military complex used by Taliban leaders in southern Afghanistan.
Ferried in by a variety of aircraft, the special forces unit of more than 100 soldiers, including Army Rangers, completed a six-hour overnight mission. The troops first attacked an airfield, then assaulted what the U.S. Defense Department decribed as a military "command control center" near the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar.
"They attacked and destroyed targets associated with terrorists and Taliban control," said Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at a Pentagon briefing today.
Myers also presented a Defense Department video clip showing U.S. forces destroying some Taliban weapons — as well as footage of troops parachuting in to Afghanistan and on the ground at the Taliban compound.
"We met resistance at both objectives," added Myers. "There were casualties on the other side." He did not provide an estimate on the number of Taliban casualties, but said two U.S. soldiers were injured when landing by parachute in Afghanistan.
According to Myers, the United States is now "re-positioning" troops for future raids.
Today, the United States has also resumed bombing raids in and around Kabul, Kandahar and Jalalabad, with the Associated Press reporting a series of eight significant explosions rattling Kabul.
Two U.S. Deaths in Separate Helicopter Crash
Additionally, the Defense Department said two U.S. military personnel died in a Blackhawk helicopter crash in Pakistan.
While not participating in the raid on Afghan soil, the helicopter had been standing by to help with search-and-rescue operations for the mission. The craft crashed while trying to land back at its base. Pentagon officials said three other personnel were also injured.
"The thing that's important for me to tell the American people is that these soldiers will not have died in vain," President Bush told reporters in Shanghai today. "This is a just cause."
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