Taliban-linked terrorists plan to attack U.S. troops

By Bill Gertz THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Terrorists linked to the Taliban militia are planning attacks on U.S. troops in Afghanistan with vehicles packed with explosives, The Washington Times has learned.

Taliban agents were detected in Pakistan during the past several weeks seeking to buy between 10 and 15 vehicles to be used as car bombs, said U.S. intelligence officials.

Reports of the Taliban terrorist plans come as the U.S. bombers continue large-scale bombing raids in southern and northeastern Afghanistan in an effort to oust the Taliban from Kandahar and flush out terrorist leader Osama bin Laden from caves near Jalalabad.

The Pentagon said Taliban forces were holding on to four "pockets of resistance."

The Taliban plan called for driving the vehicles to Kandahar and outfitting them there with explosives, said officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The vehicles then would be driven into areas where U.S. forces are deployed, notably against the Marine Corps base located about 70 miles from Kandahar, the officials said. The intelligence reveals how the Taliban plans to continue its fight once opposition forces, backed by U.S. air power, overrun their regime in Kandahar.

Defense officials said the Marines near Kandahar are wary of the threat of terrorist attack and have taken appropriate "force protection" measures.

In 1983, a terrorist truck bomb that crashed into a high-rise building in Beirut killed 241 Marines.

The first of about 1,000 Marines moved into the base in southern Afghanistan on Nov. 25.

Fewer than two dozen U.S. Army troops are deployed in northern Afghanistan, and several 12-member U.S. Special Forces teams have been deployed with several Afghan opposition groups spread out around the country.

All the Americans, as well as other foreign soldiers such as British commandos, are said to be key targets of the Taliban terrorist campaign.

"The Taliban has plenty of explosives for this," an official said. The vehicle-bomb threat has prompted Marines near Kandahar to increase base security from its already high state, defense officials said.

Yesterday, Marine forces based in southern Afghanistan strengthened their firepower with the addition of light armored vehicles and a platoon of hunter-killer teams that could go after Taliban forces if they retreated from Kandahar, according to news pool reports from Afghanistan.

Capt. David Romley, a Marine spokesman, told reporters at the Marine base that the new forces "significantly augmented" the Marines' military might. The hunter-killer platoon includes Humvee vehicles equipped with anti-tank missiles, automatic grenade launchers and heavy machine guns. It could not be learned if the additional firepower was sent in response to intelligence reports of the Taliban's plans for vehicle-bomb attacks.

"We continue to build up our forces here," Capt. Romley said.

The Marine base in Afghanistan is located on an airfield. Marines there have been filling cardboard boxes with bricks and sand to make improvised sandbags for their defense perimeter, according to media pool reports from the base.

"I told my Marines, go through these buildings and scrounge whatever you can use," a Marine captain identified only as Patricia told a reporter.

She heads the engineering detachment for the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit.

At the Pentagon yesterday, Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem, deputy director of operations for the Joint Staff, said U.S. aircraft were targeted by shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles and air strikes were increasing in an area near Jalalabad where bin Laden was believed to be hiding.

U.S. bombing raids near Kandahar and in northwestern Afghanistan continued yesterday, said news agency reports from the region.

Three Marine Corps Harrier jump-jets dropped 500-pound bombs on targets in southern Afghanistan.

Adm. Stufflebeem said the situation in Kandahar "is still fluid," with some non-Afghan Taliban fighters digging in to positions in the city.

Around Afghanistan, "there are pockets of resistance," Adm. Stufflebeem said, noting that four are located in the north — two west of Mazar-e-Sharif and two others east of that city.

"There are four pockets that I know are of concern to opposition groups, and they are surrounding and negotiating, and ultimately they may have to fight them," he said. "And I'm sure that there are more than that."

Adm. Stufflebeem said military strikes over the weekend focused on raids in support of Afghan opposition forces near Kandahar and "increasing attacks" on Taliban and terrorist command and control elements, mainly cave and tunnel complexes.

On Sunday, bombers conducted 10 planned strikes using about 110 bombers, mostly jets based on aircraft carriers.

The hunt for bin Laden, the al Qaeda leader blamed for directing the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, is focusing on bombing raids and special-operations commando actions in an area near Tora Bora, defense officials said.

Adm. Stufflebeem said recent bombing attacks southwest of Jalalabad near the village of Tora Bora are "tightening the noose" on al Qaeda leaders.

"This is an area that is pretty well known to the Central Command as an area where Taliban and al Qaeda forces have been and in numbers," Adm. Stufflebeem said. "We have heard anecdotal reports that this is an area where Osama bin Laden has been using some of his wealth to buy local village chieftains' support. This is an area that we have been consistently — certainly recently — dropping leaflets in and making broadcasts in. We're looking for individuals that we believe may be in this area. That comes from all-source intelligence."

Adm. Stufflebeem said Kandahar remains the last stronghold of the Taliban.

Opposition forces are deployed north and south of Kandahar and Afghan opposition commanders are negotiating the surrender of the city, he said.

As for Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban leader, Adm. Stufflebeem said: "We believe the senior leadership is in Kandahar."

Marines near Kandahar are living in tents or have dug foxholes on front-line positions around their base, according to pool reports.

A dust storm at the base Sunday hindered some Marine reconnaissance patrols.

"It makes it hard to tell the good guys from the bad guys," a senior commander said.

Helicopter patrols and ground missions in armored vehicles and Humvees have resulted in a few encounters with Afghans in the area. On Nov. 26, a Taliban military column was attacked near the base by U.S. warplanes and helicopters. Since then, there have been no attacks or engagements with Taliban forces, Marine pilots and commanders said.

-- Anonymous, December 04, 2001