Marines Launch Helicopter Strike
Nov. 26, 2001 -- The U.S. Marines who set up operations at an air base near the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar did not wait long to make their presence felt today, launching a helicopter strike on an armored column that included tanks and personnel carriers.
A Marines spokesman said Cobra gunships destroyed some of the 15 vehicles in the column in an attack shortly after midnight local time. He said the column was attacked after it was spotted by "fast-moving aircraft," but would not identify what kind of troops were hit or where they were heading.
It was the first action by the Marines since they took control of the Dolgani airstrip, about 65 miles southwest of Kandahar. The airstrip was built by Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network and according to a Reuters report, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar's helicopter was parked there just days ago.
General James Mattis told reporters the airstrip seizure went well. "The New York school of ballet could not have orchestrated a more intricate movement more flawlessly," he said.
About 500 Marines secured the small, private airstrip near Kandahar, the Taliban's spiritual center and last stronghold in Afghanistan early today, as President Bush warned of the increased risk of U.S. troop casualties in this new stage of the war on terrorism.
"This is a dangerous period of time," President Bush said at the White House today. "America must be prepared for loss of life."
Asked if Americans will accept casualties, Bush said: "Obviously, no president or commander in chief hopes anybody loses life in the theater, but it's going to happen." He added that he believes the American people understand "that there will be a sacrifice."
"I think the American people understand we're in for a long, long struggle in order to rid the world of terrorism and that there might be loss of life," he said. "I pray that not be the case. But our brave men and women who signed up for the military understand the risk inherent with being in the military."
An Expanding, Unclear Role
In a Pentagon briefing just hours before the helicopter attack was announced, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld refused to say whether the Marines would be involved in the hunt for accused terror mastermind Osama bin Laden or an assault on the city.
"They are not an occupying force," Rumsfeld said. "Their purpose is to establish a forward base of operations to help pressure the Taliban forces in Afghanistan, to prevent Taliban and al Qaeda terrorists from moving freely about the country."
The deployment of the Marines has "gone well so far," said Gen. Richard Myers, the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
"We have landed and we now own terrain in south Afghanistan," Gen. James Mattis said earlier today aboard amphibious assault ship USS Peleliu.
Neither Rumsfeld nor Myers would acknowledge that the decision to send so many Marines into Afghanistan represented a major change in policy. They also refused to provide details on the mission for the group.
"I think I would take our words exactly as we put them out, that we think of them as establishing and holding a forward-operating base," Rumsfeld said. "And we don't discuss future plans or developments."
The more he discussed the Marines' role, though, the less clear the issue became.
"A forward-operating base could, in fact, as you suggest, mean that there's more to come," Rumsfeld said. "It could also mean exactly what we've said it is, and that is, a forward-operating base out of which you could operate — not meaning more to come, but you could use for a variety of things.
"You could use it for humanitarian purposes; you could use it for special operations; you could use it, as some of the questions have suggested, for the inflow of additional troops. But what it is is what we have said, a forward-operating base."
Closing Off the Roads
Kandahar is seen as a key location not only because it is the city where the Taliban first established itself, but because it is a nexus of transportation routes that could be used by the regime's leaders or members of al Qaeda to flee.
"One of the advantages that accrues to us by having capability there is that the highways that connect the north and the south and the east-west and the southern part, going toward Iran … and Pakistan can be interdicted from those locations," Rumsfeld said.
"And it was decided, by the combatant commander, [Gen.] Tommy Franks, that it would be helpful to have a base there from which a variety of things could be done, rather than simply using people in and out of a special operations nature," he said.
But the operation is not expected to be easy. It appears the Taliban is digging in at Kandahar and will make a stand. A Taliban spokesman said today that their forces would fight the U.S. troops "to our last breath."
Sources told ABCNEWS the Marines will move on Kandahar in phases — those on on the ground in Afghanistan are securing the position while others wait in Pakistan. Within days, there could be 1,200 to 1,600 troops on the ground, as they arrive from two amphibious groups on ships in the Arabian Sea.
Those sources also told ABCNEWS the Marines will be used in the hunt for bin Laden, who the United States accuses of masterminding the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, his top lieutenants and Taliban leaders. They could also be used to help Afghan rebels attack particularly resistant pockets of Taliban soldiers, the sources said.
"They picked this fight. You're going to finish it," Lt. Col. Christopher Bourne told his troops aboard the Peleliu this weekend as they boarded helicopters to go ashore.
Witnesses said Kandahar was pounded overnight by fire from AC-130 gunships and U.S. fighter jets. Leaders of the tribesmen massing around the city spoke confidently of the prospects for their assault on Kandahar.
"I won't predict anything in terms of time, but it will definitely go," tribal leader Hamid Karzai told Reuters by satellite telephone.
Not far from Kandahar, anti-Taliban tribal forces claimed they had captured the town of Spin Boldak from the Taliban.
Battle Rages in Mazar-e-Sharif; American Dead
Meanwhile, the Northern Alliance has been unable to completely subdue an uprising in Mazar-e-Sharif, the first city to fall to the rebel forces, and U.S. officials told ABCNEWS that an American affiliated with the CIA was killed and another was injured there.
Five members of a U.S. special forces team deployed in Mazar-e-Sharif were injured and flown to Uzbekistan for treatment.
The violence unfolded when Taliban prisoners who were captured at Mazar-e-Sharif launched a surprise attack with smuggled weapons at a fortress being used as a detention facility. U.S. and Northern Alliance officials said earlier that the revolt had been put down, but groups of Taliban supporters continue to hold out.
The United States helped the Northern Alliance try to put down the uprising with airstrikes from AC-130 gunships and Blackhawk helicopters.
‘A Suicide Mission’
About 30 prisoners were still refusing to surrender today, according to reports from the city. More than 100 of the rebellious prisoners were killed in the uprising and the bombing that followed.
If the last remaining stragglers do not surrender by Tuesday, a new push will be launched to end the revolt, according to a spokesman for the Northern Alliance in the city.
It is believed that all of the prisoners remaining holed up in the ruins of the 19th-century Qala-i-Janghi fortress were foreign members of bin Laden's al Qaeda network, and not Afghans who fought for the Taliban.
"They kept firing with machine guns all day. We tried to convince them to lay down their arms but in vain. They seem to be on a suicide mission," Northern Alliance spokesman Abdul Wahid said.
An official at the U.S. Central Command told ABCNEWS that today's attack in Mazar-e-Sharif was "not retaliation by Northern Alliance forces" but a planned attack by the Taliban, who surrendered "with intentions that aren't pure."
Alliance Claims Kunduz
Word of the prison uprising and the possible American death came after a Northern Alliance general claimed the alliance controlled Kunduz, which had been the last Taliban stronghold in northern Afghanistan. Taliban forces that had not surrendered there were said to be on the run.
"We have captured Kunduz and there is no fighting," Northern Alliance Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah said. He said there was only a single pocket of resistance.
The city's Taliban defenders started to surrender peacefully by the hundreds over the weekend, and now thousands of the approximately 13,000 to 15,000 Taliban and foreign soldiers are believed to have given up.
Northern Alliance officials told ABCNEWS the surrender was to include the foreign fighters at Kunduz — some of whom reportedly had vowed to fight to the end, possibly fearing death at the hands of the Northern Alliance if they surrendered.
Taliban Shot, Beaten in Streets
Northern Alliance soldiers reportedly have also been beating Taliban prisoners or shooting them in the streets and leaving them where they fall for crowds of passers-by to watch them as they die.
The rebels have also been looting the city and stealing cars, according to some reports.
Besides Kunduz, targets near the southern city of Jalalabad — an area where some believe bin Laden may be hiding — were bombarded over the weekend.
U.S. special forces troops are said to be conducting cave-by-cave searches on the ground.
Myers said today that "90 percent" of the bombing raids carried out over the weekend were on emerging targets, which he said did not necessarily mean only mobile targets.
"A cave can also be considered as an emerging target as we gather intelligence about certain complexes," Myers said. "So, in a sense, yes, while it's fixed, in a sense, it's also kind of like a mobile target because we have to gather information, and once the intelligence points to a certain complex where we think we may have al Qaeda or Taliban leadership, then we will go after it."
Afghan Representatives Ready for Bonn Meeting
In other developments:
In comments to reporters, President Bush made his most explicit link so far between Iraq and the war of terrorism. Asked about Iraq's place in the current campaign, he said: "My message is that, if you harbor a terrorist, you're a terrorist. If you feed a terrorist, you're a terrorist. If you develop weapons of mass destruction that you want to terrorize the world, you'll be held accountable." Bush also demanded that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein readmit weapons inspectors, or else, "he'll find out" what the consequences are.
Representatives of various Afghan ethnic groups and factions are gathering in Bonn, Germany, for a U.N.-sponsored meeting scheduled to begin Tuesday on the future of Afghanistan. At least one of the participants, former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani, the leader of the Northern Alliance, downplayed the importance of the gathering, saying it "is not a summit council." In an interview with Abu Dhabi satellite television, he said: "It is a summit of representatives. There are no leaders of parties in Afghanistan."
Representatives of various Afghan ethnic groups and factions are gathering in Bonn, Germany, for a U.N.-sponsored meeting scheduled to begin Tuesday on the future of Afghanistan. At least one of the participants, former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani, the leader of the Northern Alliance, downplayed the importance of the gathering, saying it "is not a summit council." In an interview with Abu Dhabi satellite television, he said: "It is a summit of representatives. There are no leaders of parties in Afghanistan."
Two American aid workers who were held captive for three months by the Taliban were welcomed home today by President Bush. Heather Mercer, 24, and Dayna Curry, 30, met Bush at the White House, then stood by while reporters asked the president about the war on terrorism. The two women, who worked for a private charity, were arrested Aug. 5 on charges of attempting to convert Muslim Afghans to Christianity.
The official count of the dead or missing from the World Trade Center attack continues to drop, as officials collate the various lists of people feared lost. New York City officials say 3,646 people are dead or missing, and they have identified 625 bodies. That number includes the 92 people on board American Airlines Flight 11 and the 65 on United Airlines Flight 175 — but not the hijackers.
ABCNEWS' Jim Sciutto, Don Dahler and John Yang contributed to this report.