Afghanistan: U.S.-led Command Teams
Fight Taliban With Unconventional Warfare
By Ron Synovitz
Kandahar, 15 March 2004 (RFE/RL) -- As the U.S.-led spring offensive against Taliban
and Al-Qaeda enters its second week, there are still no signs of major conventional
ground troop movements.
According to U.S. military officials in southern Afghanistan, Operation Mountain
Storm is going to continue that way in the months ahead. That's because the coalition is using unconventional warfare tactics to fight its guerrilla opponent.
In the broad scheme, the mission hasn't accomplished the goal of killing or capturing
Taliban or Al-Qaeda fighters.Lieutenant Colonel Bryan Hilferty, the chief U.S.
military spokesman in Afghanistan, outlined the counterterrorism tactics designed to
keep pressure on the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
"Operation Mountain Storm is a continuation of the operations throughout the east,
southeast, and south of the country. Of course, we will continue patrols, vehicle
checkpoints, coordinated searches. We have small-scale air assaults. We have air
support -- close fire support from the air -- 24 hours a day circling overhead, ready
to assist coalition forces," Hilferty said.
Coalition ground forces are not massed together by the thousands, according to the
methods of conventional warfare. Instead, Operation Mountain Storm is a series of
simultaneous "search and destroy" missions spread across the Afghan interior and
along 3,300 kilometers of border with Pakistan.
These rapid-tempo operations are conducted by small groups of specialized commando
teams. Some raiding parties coordinate the efforts of U.S. Special Forces, light
mountain infantry, and soldiers from the fledgling Afghan National Army. Others
include U.S. Marines, Navy SEAL (Sea, Air, or Land) commandos, or CIA paramilitary
officers.
What Hilferty calls a "small-scale air assault" is also referred to by military
planners as a "heliborne insertion." Twin-rotor Chinook transport helicopters land
commando teams deep in the rugged mountains where Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters are
thought to be hiding.
Close air support aircraft -- fighter jets, AC-130 Spectre gunships, and A-10
Warthog attack planes -- are on standby to attack any opposition the commandos
encounter.
Sometimes the commando teams use ground vehicles to deploy from the U.S. bases that
have been established across the south, southeast, and east of Afghanistan.
But unlike the conventional war in Iraq a year ago, there are no Bradley armored
personnel carriers or Abrams tanks in Afghanistan.
U.S. officials say such a heavy mechanized force is not suited to the mountainous
terrain where the battles are now being fought.
The main ground vehicles of Operation Mountain Storm are armored humvees for U.S.
forces and fast-moving military trucks for the Afghan National Army. RFE/RL also
has seen Special Forces using all-terrain vehicles in the desert areas of southern
Afghanistan.
The unconventional approach means that much of Operation Mountain Storm is reported
as a stream of isolated incidents -- like the announcement today by Hilferty that
U.S.-led soldiers had killed three suspected Taliban members this weekend while
searching a cave in Qalat, in Zabul Province.
Mountain Storm is a coordinated operation stretching across the border provinces of
Kandahar, Zabul, Paktika, Paktia, Khost, Nangarhar and Kunar. The operation also is
pressuring Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters in interior provinces like Oruzgun, Ghazni,
and Langham.
RFE/RL has obtained audio excerpts from a U.S. Department of Defense video
documenting a commando team mission last week to search out the Taliban and destroy
their weapons caches in the mountains north of Kandahar.
RFE/RL's correspondent saw the team leave the Kandahar Air Field in several
camouflaged humvees. The group included five members of the U.S. Special Forces,
one Marine, three U.S. Army soldiers who specialize in destroying mines and
ammunition, three Afghan-American translators, and the Department of Defense combat
cameraman.
Just outside of the airfield's security gates, the team linked up with 25 soldiers
in the Afghan National Army.
The video shows the team in the Takhr Ghar mountain range as it encounters a group
of fighters from a provincial Afghan militia force. A soldier from the Afghan
National Army takes up a position on a rocky ridge while others assess whether the
militia fighters are hostile.
Indeed, some provincial Afghan militias include Taliban fighters who have opened
fire on the U.S.-led commando teams in the past week. But here in the Takhr Ghar
mountain range, the militia force cooperates by providing information about
suspected Taliban fighters and leading the team to a cache of weapons and
ammunition.
The hoard is near the village of Petaw. It includes a large supply of tank shells,
anti-personnel mines, Soviet-era rockets, mortar shells, rocket propelled grenades,
and C-4 plastic explosives. The U.S. Army's explosives experts work with the
Special Forces and Afghan soldiers to move the cache into a deep trench.
The video captures the Special Forces team leader discussing the munitions with a
translator.
Special Forces (SF) leader: Uh, what's in there?
Afghan translator: Those are mines
SF leader: Mines?
Translator: Yeah.
SF team member: Uh, those are bad.
As the work continues, one of the soldiers in the Afghan National Army carelessly
drops a metal box of explosives onto the pile of tank shells in the trench.
SF leader: Hey! Tell him to be careful.
Translator: Yeah. Hey, do that carefully.
Afghan National Army soldier: Are there fuses on these?
Afghan soldier: Yes
SF leader: The fuse is on it, so [be careful stacking those up.]
It takes hours for the work to be completed. By the time the army's explosives
experts are ready to detonate the cache, it is after sundown. A radio operator
announces a warning about the explosion, and the night is lit by a flash of
brilliant orange light.
Despite the success in finding weapons and munitions, no direct contact with
Taliban fighters was made during the mission in the Takhr Ghar mountains.
During the next two days, the team travels to the village of Darvishan in the
Desha Agha Ghar mountain range. Again, no Taliban fighters are encountered. But
a village elder provides the team with information about another weapons cache.
It is smaller than the cache at Petaw. It includes small arms, rocket propelled
grenades, and ammunition for AK-47s.
The village elder says the munitions were left behind by Russian troops more
than 15 years ago, but the U.S.-led team is suspicious of the claim. The weapons
and ammunition, which were stored in a dusty cave hollowed out of a hillside,
appear to be new.
On the fourth day of the mission, before returning to the Kandahar airfield, the
commando squad distributes reading materials and the new Afghan national flag at
a village school along with soccer balls for the children. The villagers appear
genuinely happy about the gifts.
In the broad scheme, the mission hasn't accomplished the goal of killing or
capturing Taliban or Al-Qaeda fighters. It certainly hasn't turned up any
information in the hunt for Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden or Taliban spiritual
leader Mullah Omar.
But U.S. officials say they hope the scores of similar missions in the coming
months will deny the insurgents the ability to regroup in Afghanistan and conduct
guerrilla attacks against U.S. forces or the troops of the Afghan National Army.
