So far this is all I can find on this story (I'm still picking through it myself... figured I'll post it to bring other normal people up to speed)... No Rumsfeld quotes yet. I'll find something for ya tho... the aftermath of your conspiracy theory going up in smoke with be a bit entertaining on an otherwise dull day.
October 21, 2001
American special forces were yesterday involved in
pitched battles inside Afghanistan after being parachuted
into an area where Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the
11 September terrorist attacks, has been a frequent visitor.
More than 100 US commandos and light infantry Rangers fought
with Taliban forces near the regime's spiritual stronghold
of Kandahar, the Taliban's spiritual centre - where bin Laden
has been a frequent visitor - and a military airport 60 miles
to the southeast. Some 20 Taliban soldiers were reportedly
killed. US helicopters were seen over Kandahar again last night,
apparently confirming reports of further attacks.
The forces siezed intelligence from a complex which serves as
one of the Taliban command and control compounds which they
hope will reveal clues to the whereabouts of the Taliban leader
Mullah Mohammed Omar and bin Laden. After a savage 30-minute
firefight, US troops also cleared the airstrip building by
building. "We have accomplished our objective at the airfield,"
said General Richard Myers, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
last night.
"We did not expect to find significant Taliban
leadership at these locations," he said. "We, of course, were
hoping we would, but we did not expect it, and we did not find
senior Taliban or Al-Qaeda leadership."
Other operations involving ground troops were imminent, he added.
"We are going to have ongoing operations around the world."
The general revealed that the US commandos came across stores of
rocket propelled grenades, machine guns and ammunition and
destroyed them. In Britain, Ministry of Defence sources said
detachments of British Royal Marines could shortly be sent to the
region. In the event of a long ground war, Gurkha regiments could
also be called upon because of their experience of mountain terrain.
It is understood that at least one SAS unit is already operating
inside Afghanistan, but with orders to unite the rebel troops and
attempt to encourage Taliban defections, rather than take part in
direct action and in the clearest signal yet that a ground
offensive was imminent, Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, said:
"we have looked at a number of different options. Some of those
certainly involve putting boots on the ground in Afghanistan in
a number of different ways to achieve our ultimate objective of
bringing Osama bin Laden to justice and his associates to account."
In an unprecedented wartime public relations act, the Pentagon
released grainy film taken by its own camera operators, including
dramatic clips of night parachute drops showing troops jumping on
to the airfield from an MC 130E Combat Talon and destroying
equipment. The special forces were taken out by helicoptor at dawn
after hours inside Taliban territory. The battle against Taliban
militia in Kandahar began after troops boarded aircraft at the
remote Pakistani airstrip of Dalbandin, 37 miles from the Afghan
frontier. US troops began arriving at the base, the third now
being used in Pakistan by the Americans, on Thursday, military
sources said. They are believed to have acted with special forces
troops aboard the USS Kitty Hawk positioned in the Arabian Gulf.
Locals reported that helicopters began taking off from Dalbandin
at 10.30pm on Friday and air activity continued until 6am yesterday.
Army Rangers parachuted on to the airport were loaded armed on
transport planes in nearby Oman. Two American military personnel
were killed and five others were injured when a Black Hawk helicopter
involved in support operations in Pakistan crashed at an airbase.
Taliban claims that they had hit it were dismissed by the US.
Two Rangers were hurt parachuting onto the airfield. "These soldiers
will not have died in vain,' President George W. Bush said last night.
"This is a just cause. The American people now fully understand that
we are in an important struggle, a struggle that will take time, and
that there will be moments of sacrifice."
The American raids appear to have been a double-headed attack
aimed at killing or capturing both Mullah Omar, the reclusive cleric
who leads the Taliban, and bin Laden. Sources said five helicopters
landed at the small village of Baba Sahib, in Arghandab district
five miles north-west of Kandahar, the city which is the spiritual
home of the Taliban. Omar has recently built a house in the village,
which has already been the target of sustained air attacks. Afghan
military sources said that he was not in the area at the time of the
attack. Myers said the Taliban leader had lived in the command and
control building the commandos raided. The raids signalled a new
phase of the US-led coalition's war on terrorism, after 13 days of
strikes from the air alone. Military sources in America and Britain
said the lightning 'hit and run' raids would be the first of many
and that British troops were now on standby to support further
incursions. The Pentagon said American troops had been in the country
for a few hours and had all returned to bases in Pakistan.
The escalation has provoked a renewed exodus of refugees and sparked
a new offensive by the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, which launched
an attack on positions north of Karbul. The attacks also increased
tension in the whole region, with Pakistan struggling to contain
protests. Yesterday afternoon a bomb was discovered in the departure
lounge of Islamabad airport. It was detonated in a controlled explosion.
There were no injuries. There were also reports of a new anthrax
outbreak at the House of Representatives in Washington.
Bombing raids by American planes continued throughout the day yesterday
with planes hitting Kabul, Kandahar and Herat. More than 30 aircraft
were launched from the carrier USS Carl Vinson. In the streets of Karbul,
tanks and troops were seen moving and sporadic bursts of gunfire were
heard as troops apparently fired with small arms on planes flying low
overhead. Witnesses reported that resistance was almost non-existent,
with little anti-aircraft fire. The Islamic militia said that 900
civilians have been killed in the strikes so far, though there is no
confirmation of the figure. The Taliban remained defiant last night,
saying that they had successfully repulsed the US raid and that they
might as well give up their Muslim faith as give up the world's most
http://globalspecops.com/oeftimeline2b.html
