ChicSunTrib

American ground forces battle Taliban

November 17, 2001

BY STEPHANIE ZIMMERMANN AND DAVE NEWBART STAFF REPORTERS

U.S. ground forces are in Afghanistan killing Taliban and al-Qaida fighters, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Friday during a visit to the Chicago area.

"To my knowledge there have been no [U.S.] casualties, dead or wounded" in those attacks, Rumsfeld said.

Confirmation of the Special Forces' actions came as investigators announced the finding of an anthrax-tainted letter addressed to Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy.

There also were reports that Osama bin Laden's military chief had been killed in an American air strike and that the Taliban's supreme leader was getting ready to abandon his home base of Kandahar.

At a graduation ceremony at the Great Lakes Naval Base near North Chicago, Rumsfeld said it was highly likely that bin Laden's military chief, Mohammed Atef, was dead. "The reports I've seen seem authoritative," he said.

Earlier Friday, Rumsfeld told reporters that U.S. forces "have gone into places and met resistance and dealt with it." He would not say how many soldiers are involved on the ground, saying only that it was in the "hundreds."

Asked what the U.S. Special Forces were doing in southern Afghanistan, Rumsfeld said, "They are looking for information. They're interdicting roads. They're killing Taliban that won't surrender and al-Qaida that are trying to move from one place to another." The U.S. forces also are looking for airfields where aircraft could bring in supplies.

Rumsfeld's description of U.S. Special Forces operations was the most complete yet offered.

Some American troops are on horseback and packing supplies on donkeys as they collect intelligence, call in air strikes and help anti-Taliban forces.

''We've had some instances where they've been overrun,'' he said, referring to U.S. troops. But they managed to call in strikes and escape harm.

High-level Taliban leaders, Rumsfeld added, have been captured by opposition Afghan forces and were awaiting interrogations by American officials.

Rumsfeld could not confirm reports that other top bin Laden lieutenants have been killed, but he believed they had been. He added that he has "every reason to believe" bin Laden and the Taliban's supreme leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, are still in Afghanistan.

Atef is suspected of involvement in the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, as well as the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. His daughter is married to bin Laden's son.

In other developments:

*The anthrax letter mailed to Leahy was the second bearing the deadly bacteria sent to Capitol Hill, law enforcement officials said. It was postmarked from Trenton, N.J., as was the one sent to Majority Leader Tom Daschle, and contains similar handwriting, sources said.

*Taliban chief Omar reportedly has left Kandahar, the Taliban's home base. But heavy fighting continued in Kunduz, another Taliban stronghold, on Friday, the first day of Ramadan.

*Other nations continue to respond, with France sending its first contingent of troops to northern Afghanistan and British soldiers securing an airfield for future humanitarian work.

*Hartsfield International, the nation's busiest airport in Atlanta, was shut down after a man ran through a security checkpoint. He was arrested seven hours later, and authorities said he was a football fan rushing to his flight.

Rapidly changing scene

Omar has agreed to leave his headquarters at Kandahar and turn over the southern Afghan city to two local Pashtun leaders, the Afghan Islamic Press said Friday. The Pakistan-based agency said Omar agreed to leave the city and head for the mountains following discussions with ''close friends and army commanders."

Under the deal, control of the city will pass to Mullah Naqibullah and Haji Basher, two former commanders of Afghan resistance forces in the war against Soviet invaders who are not Taliban members.

Taliban forces appeared to be pulling out of Kandahar, according to local reports, but a local government spokesman told CNN that it was too early to confirm their movements. He added that it would take days for the 30,000 to 40,000 Taliban troops to retreat, and that Omar and bin Laden were still in the Kandahar area.

At the Pentagon, Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem said he wasn't ready to believe the report of Omar's retreat. "I think that our forces who are there are still operating under the assumption that it is a hostile environment. I think the opposition groups are operating in the same way."

At Kunduz in the north, the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, backed by U.S. air strikes, was laying siege to the city. But Taliban control appeared to be holding. The defenders include an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 foreigners loyal to bin Laden--who are much less likely than the Afghan Taliban to simply negotiate a surrender or slip away.

Other nations step up

About 100 British troops were on duty at Bagram airport north of Kabul to support humanitarian relief efforts. France sent its first contingent of soldiers to help secure northern Afghanistan for the delivery of humanitarian aid, and Japan and Turkey had troops on standby.

Up to 4,000 British forces are on standby to go to the region. They would likely be assigned to clear the way for aid agencies to take badly needed supplies to hundreds of thousands of refugees.

Meanwhile, the top United Nations envoy for Afghanistan said Friday he is trying to persuade the Northern Alliance to take part in a meeting outside the country on forming a transitional government.

Home front

In New York, an Algerian man was charged with aiding a would-be bomber in a failed plot to attack Los Angeles International Airport during millennium celebrations.

A criminal complaint made public Friday accuses Samir Ati Mohamed of agreeing to help Ahmed Ressam--who was trained in bin Laden-run camps in Afghanistan--obtain guns and hand grenades to use in bank robberies.

At the Great Lakes event, Rumsfeld took time to laud the 615 Navy recruits for serving their country. As the newly minted sailors looked on in their formal blue uniforms and crisp white hats, Rumsfeld said the Navy is helping send a clear message to terrorists that "we will root out and destroy the terrorists in whatever camp or tunnel or country they may lurk."

"No matter where you are . . . you will be an outpost of freedom, helping strike the enemy there before he strikes here."

The possibility of joining Operation Enduring Freedom was both exciting and concerning to some of the young sailors, most of whom decided to join before Sept. 11.

"I had no idea what I was getting myself into," said Yosniel Romero, 18, from Miami.

Contributing: Sun-Times wires

-- Anonymous, November 17, 2001