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U.S. Beefing Up Special Forces in Afghanistan, "Hurting" Taliban
WASHINGTON/JABAL-US-SAFAJ, Afghanistan, Nov. 4 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The United States has significantly increased the number of special forces troops operating inside Afghanistan in recent days, the top U.S. military officer said on Sunday.
Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said special forces teams had been successfully inserted to work with Afghan opposition groups and bolster the U.S. air campaign against the ruling Taliban's front lines.
"Just last night, the night before, we put in a couple more teams," Myers told NBC's Meet the Press. "And the more teams we get on the ground, the more effectively we will bring air power to bear on the Taliban's lines."
Asked if the new deployments represented a "significant increase" in the U.S. troops on the ground in Afghanistan, Myers replied: "It is. It's an increase."
Anxious to reassure Americans and steady uncertain allies, U.S. spokesmen gave a unified message on Sunday that the campaign was on course.
"It's going exactly according to our plan," said Myers. "We have taken down the Taliban air defenses. We have disrupted their ability to re-supply their own forces. We took down their transports, most of their helicopters.
"Most of their communications have been taken down. In fact, some of them are communicating now with runners, which is obviously in Afghanistan not the most efficient way," Myers said.
Officials previously reported up to 100 U.S. special forces troops in Afghanistan spotting targets for American warplanes.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld expressed his intention to increase that number by three or four times. The United States again struck Taliban front lines in Afghanistan on Sunday and its military leaders said they had seriously damaged the ability of the country's Taliban rulers to govern, communicate or defend themselves.
"The Taliban is not really functioning as a government as such," Rumsfeld told reporters after meeting Pakistan's Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar in Islamabad.
"As a military force they have concentrations of power that exist. They have military capabilities that exist. They are using their power in enclaves ... to impose their will," Rumsfeld said.
Earlier, in Uzbekistan, Rumsfeld said the campaign was showing "measurable progress."
The United States and its allies launched the campaign to destroy the al-Qaeda network of Saudi-born dissident Osama bin Laden, accused of masterminding the hijacking attacks on New York and Washington that killed around 4,800 people. The Taliban became are targeted because they shelter bin Laden and his thousands of fighters in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, in northern Takhar province, near the border with the former Soviet republic of Tajikistan, fighter jets and B-52 bombers roared over the opposition Northern Alliance military encampment of Khoja Bahawuddin early on Sunday before dropping their bombs some 15 miles (25 km) to the south on the Taliban front lines, a news agency reporter said.
In Islamabad, aid workers in contact with the Afghan capital said the bombing of Taliban positions north of Kabul had wounded between 200 and 300 Taliban fighters since B-52s began carpet-bombing last week.
The casualties were being treated in military hospitals in the city and security was tight, said the aid workers, who declined to be identified.
Military experts said that with that number of wounded, the number of deaths would be between 30 and 50.
Gen. Tommy Franks, commander in chief of the U.S. Central Command, said on ABC's "This Week" it was too early to consider a full-scale ground war that would put thousands of American troops and far more extensive weaponry into Afghanistan.
"We are making great progress. ... We're doing our work on our time line," Franks said.
Franks, asked if the United States was open to calls by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and other Muslim leaders to stop the military action temporarily, said: "Yes. ... I think we'd be awfully foolish to not listen to people who have joined with us in this campaign. And so what we're doing is, we're listening to all the views, then we'll take a decision on whether to move ahead or not."
U.S. aims are to capture or kill bin Laden, shut down his network and replace the Taliban with a broad-based government.
Although concern is growing about the pace and lack of tangible success of the U.S. operation, military leaders insisted momentum was on their side.
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