http://www.boston.com/news/daily/04/attacks_us_combat_death.htm

Pentagon confirms 1st US combat death in Afghanistan

By Robert Burns, Associated Press, 01/04/02

WASHINGTON - A U.S. Army Special Forces soldier was killed by small-arms fire in eastern Afghanistan Friday, the first member of the American military to die inside the war-torn country in the three-month-old campaign.

Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of U.S. Central Command, announced the death at a news conference in Tampa, Fla. He said the soldier's name was being withheld until family members were notified.

Franks said the Green Beret was part of a U.S. military team that was operating near the town of Khost, a few miles from the Pakistan border.

(Franks said no other U.S. military personel were injured in the incident, Reuters reported.)

"There was an exchange of small-arms fire," Franks said. "This American serviceman was doing his job. He was out for the purpose of working with and coordinating with tribal leaders in that area."

He offered no other details of the incident.

The four-star general said the death underscored the dangers faced by U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan, where there are pockets of resistance from al-Qaida and Taliban fighters.

On Nov. 25, CIA operative Johnny "Mike" Spann was killed during a prison uprising in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif.

The only other U.S. military members killed inside Afghanistan were three U.S. special operations troops mistakenly hit by a U.S. airstrike near Kandahar on Dec. 5. Two U.S. military members were killed in a helicopter crash in Pakistan early in the military campaign.

Pentagon officials have stressed frequently that although the large-scale fighting in Afghanistan is over, the country remains dangerous for U.S. troops, who now number about 4,000 on the ground.

Afghanistan "is still an extraordinarily dangerous place and this is an extraordinarily dangerous mission," Victoria Clarke, chief spokeswoman for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, told reporters Friday before the combat casualty was disclosed by other officials.

Franks said at the Tampa news conference that U.S. forces have examined seven of eight abandoned cave complexes in the Tora Bora region, where some believe al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden had been hiding. He said a substantial number of bodies were found in the caves, as well as weapons, including a tank.

U.S. warplanes bombed a suspected al-Qaida base in eastern Afghanistan for the second time in as many days Friday after coalition observers detected some of Osama bin Laden's forces trying to regroup there, military officials said.

The second strike on the Zawar Kili camp near Khost took place in late morning, after coalition forces detected some activity at the base in the hours following the first strike, Clarke said.

To improve the coalition's ability to conduct strikes, a U.S. team of about 180 people is preparing an air base in Kyrgyzstan for use by fighter-bombers and air tankers, said a defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Within a few weeks, the base will be ready for F-15E Strike Eagles, fighter-bombers that can carry "bunker-buster" penetrating bombs, the official said.

Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet republic that borders China, is not adjacent to Afghanistan. But the air base will give coalition forces a northern base from which to fly missions in Afghanistan.

The search for bin Laden, whom the United States holds responsible for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, continues by land, sea and air.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said the Pentagon will continue pursuing bin Laden and his top lieutenants, as well as Mullah Mohammed Omar and other Taliban leaders. The military campaign in Afghanistan will not be over until they are found, Rumsfeld said.

"We intend to find them and we intend to capture or kill them," Rumsfeld told a Pentagon news conference Thursday.

Rumsfeld repeatedly said the U.S. military campaign against al-Qaida has been effective, even while acknowledging that it has not met President Bush's stated goal of bringing top terrorist leaders to justice.

Details of the twin strikes -- the first since Dec. 28 -- were sketchy. In the first strike, defense officials said fighters and bombers dropped about 100 bombs on the compound, which included a training facility and a cave complex. An AC-130 gunship also took part.

An official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the undetermined number of al-Qaida fighters at the compound appeared to be regrouping either to resume fighting or to slip across the nearby border into Pakistan.

U.S. cruise missiles struck the same compound in August 1998 in response to terrorist attacks on U.S. embassies in Africa, Myers said. It also was struck in November.

"It has been a place where the al-Qaida goes to regroup," said Gen. Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It was not clear how many al-Qaida members may have been killed in the attack.

On Dec. 28, U.S. planes struck a compound near the city of Gardez, not far from Thursday's and Friday's strikes.

In other developments:

Afghan officials said they were trying to get tribal leaders to surrender their weapons as they continued to search the mountains for Omar. U.S. officials were insistent that no deal be offered that would lead to freedom for Omar, the second most wanted man after bin Laden.

Prime Minister Hamid Karzai has agreed to visit President Bush next month in what will be the first visit to Washington by an Afghan leader in almost 40 years, the White House said.

Pakistan arrested the former Taliban ambassador in Islamabad, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, said Zaeef's nephew, Hamid Ullah. He said he did not know the reason for the arrest of Zaeef, who was the most prominent Taliban spokesman during the U.S. campaign against the militia.

Clarke said the United States is currently holding 273 Taliban or al-Qaida members from Afghanistan either at U.S. bases in the country or on ships. Rumsfeld said an undetermined number of prisoners would be moved to the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as soon as the base is readied. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - American deaths related to the fight against terrorism since the campaign began Oct. 7:

Jan. 4: An Army Special Forces soldier is killed in a gun battle in the vicinity of Khost, near the Pakistan border. He was the first U.S. soldier killed by the enemy.

Dec. 5: Three American soldiers are killed and 19 wounded in Afghanistan when a U.S. bomb missed its target.

Nov. 30: Officials announce that a soldier from the Army's 10th Mountain Division died of a gunshot in Uzbekistan, where about 1,000 members of the division are stationed. Officials say his death was not the result of enemy action and is being investigated.

Nov. 25: Rioting prisoners kill CIA officer Johnny "Mike" Spann at Mazar-e-Sharif. He was the first American killed in action in the country.

Nov. 7: A sailor falls overboard from an aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea.

Oct. 19: Two Army Rangers die in the crash of their Black Hawk helicopter in Pakistan, and three other crewmen were injured.

Oct. 10: An Air Force sergeant is killed in a heavy equipment accident in the northern Arabian peninsula. His was the first death in the campaign.

-- Anonymous, January 04, 2002