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Early results satisfy U.S.By PAUL DE LA GARZA
© St. Petersburg Times, WASHINGTON -- In a remarkable briefing Saturday replete with night-scope video of secret U.S. ground operations in Afghanistan, the Pentagon declared the introduction of U.S. ground forces overnight as a success.
"One of the messages should be that we are capable of, at a time of our choosing, conducting the kind of operations we want to conduct," Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at the Pentagon. President Bush, in China for an Asian economic conference, said he was satisfied that the military was achieving its objective of destroying terrorist hideouts. "We are slowly but surely encircling the terrorists so that we can bring them to justice," Bush said in Shanghai, China. While the air war continued, the use of ground forces, which had been anticipated, marked a new, riskier phase in the war on terrorism. Indeed, the night operation saw the first combat-related fatalities since the U.S.-led air campaign began Oct. 7. Two American military personnel were killed and three others injured after the Black Hawk they were flying in support of the special forces mission crashed in a remote area of Pakistan. The president said he grieved for the dead soldiers, who "died in a cause that is just and right." At the Pentagon, Myers sent his condolences to their families. The Pentagon withheld their identities, pending notification of next of kin. "They and all who are participating in Operation Enduring Freedom are heroes," Myers said. "They put their lives on the line on behalf of freedom and on behalf of America, and they do it each and every day." Myers dismissed Taliban claims that they had shot down the helicopter. "As it's pretty well-established," Myers said, "the Taliban lie, and in this case, any claim that they shot the helicopter down is false." He characterized the crash as "an aircraft mishap," with a significant amount of dust possibly playing a role. Myers opened the briefing with fascinating footage of the secret operation, showing members of the Special Forces packing their bags, boarding C-130 transport aircraft, and parachuting into Afghanistan. On the ground, an eerie image showed members of the Special Forces walking around an airfield, with explosions in the background. Myers said the Special Operations Forces, including Army Rangers, managed to sneak into southern Afghanistan, gather intelligence and get out. "The mission overall was successful," he said. "We accomplished our objectives." Both raids were staged near Kandahar, the spiritual center of the fundamentalist clerics who rule the Taliban. For security reasons, Myers was stingy with the details, including the number of personnel involved in the ground assault. Published reports, however, say the operation, which took several hours, featured more than 100 troops. While the general said that a variety of aircraft was used during the mission, he declined to be specific. He also declined to say how the Special Forces got out, although it is believed they got out by helicopter. Two soldiers suffered minor injuries during the parachute drops. Myers said the mission was intended to gather intelligence at an airfield and at one of Omar's compounds, both located around Kandahar, the Taliban's nerve center. He said the two sites were "fairly far apart." Speaking of the commando teams, Myers said, "They attacked and destroyed targets associated with terrorist activity and Taliban command and control. U.S. Forces were able to deploy, maneuver and operate inside Afghanistan without significant interference from Taliban forces." He added, "They are now refitting and repositioning for potential future operations against terrorist targets in other areas known to harbor terrorists." Myers said the Special Forces, who are under the control of the Special Operations Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, came under attack at both locations. "As you would expect, going into Taliban-held territory, you would meet resistance, and we met resistance at both objectives, the airfield and the other objective," Myers said. "It was, I guess you could characterize it as light. "There were casualties on the other side. The exact number we do not know yet." An Afghan refugee arriving in Pakistan told the Associated Press that 25 Taliban fighters were killed in the raid of the command compound at Qila Jadeed, about 20 miles northwest of Kandahar. U.S. officials, Myers said, were in the process of evaluating the intelligence collected during the mission. "You could simply take the targets out perhaps with bombs, but that would deny you the capability to get the intelligence," Myers said. Myers said the Special Forces did not encounter senior Taliban or al-Qaida leaders during the raids. He added, however, that such a stroke of luck would have been welcomed. The Rangers left behind a calling card: 81/2- by 10-inch sheets that said "Freedom Endures," with a picture of firemen raising the American flag at what appeared to be the World Trade Center. Asked if the raids marked the start of the ground war, Myers said, "The war on terrorism started on 11 September. As we said before, some of our operations are going to be visible, some are going to be invisible. "Some of the invisible operations we will provide information as we've done today. "There will be other invisible operations where we will not say a thing about them and you will see no film about them. "That's the way I'd like to answer that." Airstrikes resumed over Afghanistan on Saturday, as B-1 and B-52 bombers and carrier-based FA-18s and F-14s dropped laser-guided and satellite-guided bombs during daytime raids over Kabul, the capital, and Kandahar and Herat. -- Information from the New York Times and Knight Ridder was used in this report.
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