http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/344/nation/US_shifts_command_to_Kuwait+.shtml

US shifts command to Kuwait

Army positioned for troop buildup or wider conflict

By Bryan Bender, Globe Correspondent, Globe Staff, 12/10/2001

ASHINGTON - As US and Afghan forces pressed the battle against Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, Pentagon officials said yesterday that they are moving the command of ground forces in the war on terrorism from the United States to the Persian Gulf, in the clearest sign yet that US military commanders are preparing for a protracted campaign in Afghanistan and beyond.

The Pentagon officials said the US Third Army, based at Fort McPherson, Ga., is moving its headquarters unit to a secure location in Kuwait, where it will oversee combat and humanitarian operations in Afghanistan. The Third Army command is capable of directing tens of thousands of combat troops if an increase in ground operations is deemed necessary.

''They will have command and control of the ground forces in Afghanistan,'' said the Central Command spokesman, Marine Corps Major Brad Lowell.

''They will also support the ground forces for the ongoing war against terrorism,'' he said.

That suggested that future military operations are being considered, once the Afghan operation winds down.

Positioning the headquarters in Kuwait is ''both practical and significant,'' said Andrew Krepinevitch, a retired Army colonel who is now director of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a Washington think tank.

''It will enable the US to have in place the command structure that will allow it to engage in protracted operations in Afghanistan, should it take longer than expected, and for whatever comes next, whether it be in Sudan, Somalia, or Iraq,'' he said. Those three countries were listed last week by General Tommy R. Franks, who as commander of the US Central Command is responsible for overseeing the war, when he was asked what other nations his military planners were focusing on.

The establishment of a field command in much closer proximity to the battle front in Afghanistan mirrors the shift in emphasis in recent days from air attacks to ground combat. Though still backed by concentrated US airstrikes, US Marines, special forces soldiers, and their local tribal allies are now mounting search-and-destroy operations against the senior Taliban leadership and Qaeda terrorists in caves, mountain redoubts, and other rugged terrain.

Heavy fighting continued yesterday in the area of Tora Bora in eastern Afghanistan, near the Pakistani border, where bin Laden and several thousand of his hard-line followers are believed to be dug in.

To the southwest, in Kandahar, where the last major Taliban stronghold fell to opposition forces last week, US Marines carrying photographs of the most-wanted Qaeda and Taliban leaders continued to block avenues of escape.

In Tora Bora, local opposition fighters continued their pitched battle against remaining Qaeda forces, and commanders told reporters that efforts to defeat bin Laden's fighters were proving increasingly difficult.

''It is not easy,'' said Afghan commander Mohammad Zaman. ''They have top weapons and plenty of ammunition,'' including heavy mortars, rocket launchers, and machine guns.

Afghan soldiers on the front numbered about 2,500, while the Qaeda force is estimated to total between 1,500 and 4,000 fighters, Zaman said.

Air Force General Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, described the fighting near Tora Bora as ''very fierce.''

''We know that the Al Qaeda forces are relatively large in number, just because of the ferocity of the fighting,'' Myers said on the CBS television program ''Face the Nation.''

Zaman said his troops needed heavier weapons to take on Qaeda soldiers who have hunkered down in the Milawa hills, about 30 miles south of Jalalabad. He said the fighting could go on for weeks.

The Afghan troops - sent by the Eastern Shura, now the ruling body of elders in eastern Afghanistan - have about a half-dozen tanks at the front and are equipped with rocket launchers and Kalashnikov rifles. Qaeda soldiers are much more heavily armed and have been firing mortars at Afghan positions.

Zaman indicated that more firepower would be arriving in the coming days, but he would not say whether the United States was sending the weapons. US aircraft continued to bomb Qaeda targets, including carpet bombing in Milawa, where Qaeda troops live in a labyrinth of caves.

The movement of the Third Army headquarters to the region indicates that more US help, and specifically additional American ground troops, may be on the way. Franks said last week that he was considering the deployment of additional ground forces to Afghanistan.

The Third Army, well-versed in military operations in the Middle East, has moved its headquarters and senior staff to a secure location in Kuwait, where it is setting up what has been designated the Coalition Force Land Component Command, defense officials said.

Officials in the United States yesterday did not say when the decision was made to move the command, but one defense official who asked not to be named said the headquarters was not yet fully operational. US military officials in Kuwait could not be reached for comment late yesterday.

The Third Army doubles as Army Forces Central Command, or ARCENT, the ground component of Central Command, which is based in Tampa and is responsible for all US Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force operations stretching from Central Asia to the Horn of Africa. Most recently, from Oct. 8 through Nov. 1, the command oversaw a 10-nation military exercise in Egypt, called Bright Star, which involved an estimated 20,000 multinational troops.

The command also played a central role in the 1990-91 Persian Gulf War, overseeing in just 90 days the deployment of ground forces that it took a year to move into the battle area during the Vietnam War. Since the Gulf War, the Third Army has rotated Army brigades to Kuwait as part of Operation Desert Spring, the continuing defense of Kuwait against Iraq, which invaded the small Persian Gulf emirate in August 1990.

The Third Army is commanded by Army Lieutenant General Paul T. Mikolashek.

In addition to commanding and controlling the ongoing combat operation in Afghanistan, the new headquarters will direct ground units supporting humanitarian efforts, defense officials said.

Those activities are expected to accelerate in the coming days, with the opening of a land bridge between Afghanistan and Uzbekistan. The successful delivery of aid will depend on secure routes of passage, a role to be filled by US, British, and other coalition ground troops.

The new headquarters ''eliminates some command and control problems caused by time and distance,'' said Lowell, the Central Command spokesman.

If Iraq becomes a target in the US war on terrorism because it is suspected of having weapons of mass destruction, as many defense and foreign policy specialists have predicted, ''there is no comparable ground force to the [opposition forces in Afghanistan] that exists inside Iraq,'' Krepinevitch said. ''That is likely to require a larger US ground force involvement than was the case in Afghanistan.''

The Qaeda terrorist network ''is very, very large,'' Myers said yesterday. ''It's not just Afghanistan.''

-- Anonymous, December 10, 2001