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U.S. Ground Presence in Afghanistan Confirmed by Journalists, Locals
WASHINGTON, Nov. 5 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Eyewitness reports of unidentified "Western" men have accumulated in Gulbahar, Afghanistan - confirming the presence of U.S. special forces on the ground, U.S. and British newspapers said Monday.
The Los Angeles Times reported that four "Western" men, faces hidden behind sunglasses and Afghan head scarves, were seen observing anti-Taliban military exercises and shunted away from reporters when questioned.
Also in an article Monday, Britain's Scotsman described the "first known photograph of U.S. Special Forces soldiers in Afghanistan" in which five men wearing jeans and sneakers were boarding a helicopter near Gulbahar. The men were heavily guarded and their Afghan guards chased the photographer away.
An Afghan interpreter with the men approached by the Times journalists told them the men only spoke Spanish, the paper said. The men themselves at first refused to speak, then left the scene in a white van.
The Times quoted a villager who said it was "common knowledge" that the men were Americans and had been on the ground for days. The villager added that he had seen them three times.
The article suggested that the Westerners were U.S. military advisors. The Scotsman article said that the men were "commandos and logistics experts," who were there in connection with an effort to supply weapons and munitions to the Northern Alliance forces.
Last week, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld admitted that the U.S. was airdropping ammunition to the anti-Taliban forces. He added that weapons were not being supplied yet.
The Times article reported that the Pentagon is considering setting up a base in the northern Panjshir valley to aid special forces on the ground.
Northern Alliance Interior Minister, Yonus Qanuni, told The Irish Times that the U.S. would conduct a "major ammunition supply operation," bringing in tank and artillery shells. He said the proposed base would "become the hub of a giant U.S. operation" to support the ground operations.
The Irish Times said that the airstrip on which the men boarded the helicopter was located about 25 miles north of Kabul. And the Scotsman said that the airstrip in the empty Gulbahar field was laid down two weeks ago. The report was corroborated verbally by local villagers, who told the papers about above-average wages being paid for the work.
Previously, the U.S. had admitted to about 100 U.S. special forces troops on the ground, while the Defense Department told news agencies this weekend that a "significant" number of troops had been deployed already. Officials said the U.S. planned to increase by "three or four times" the number on the ground.
On Sunday, news agencies put out reports of an "ambush" of U.S. commandos on the ground by Taliban forces.
Agence France-Presse (AFP) referred to a New Yorker magazine report that twelve Delta Force commandos were wounded - three seriously - when they encountered stiffer-than-expected Taliban resistance during the October 20 raid on Mullah Mohammad Omar's compound outside Kandahar.
Top U.S. military officials are re-assessing future special forces operations in Afghanistan after the nearly disastrous October 20 raid, according to the Monday edition of the magazine.
The elite Delta Force, "which prides itself on stealth, had been counterattacked by the Taliban, and some Americans had to fight their way to safety," according to the article.
The ferocity of the Taliban response "scared the crap out of everyone," a senior military officer told Seymour Hersh, the article's author.
The Delta team stormed Mullah Omar's complex, but found little of value, the report said.
But as they came out of the house they ran into fierce resistance. "It was like an ambush," a senior officer told Hersh. "The Taliban were fighting with light arms and either [rocket-propelled grenades] or mortars," and "had the advantage."
The team immediately took casualties and evacuated, and dropped plans to insert an undercover team into the area, the report said.
One senior official told Hersh, "I don't know where the adult supervision for these operations is. [General Tommy] Franks is clueless." Franks is the top general at U.S. Central Command, responsible for Afghanistan operations.
But Franks challenged the New Yorker's report, telling ABC's "This Week" that there were injuries to "some young people who had scratches and bumps and knocks from rocks," according to another report by the
Scotsman.
"We had no-one wounded by enemy fire and I think that is probably worthwhile noting," Franks said.
The Scotsman quoted a senior military officer as saying that the Pentagon had kept the matter quiet "because it doesn't want to appear that it doesn't know what it's doing."
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