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No Signal that Attack is Imminent
Saturday, September 29, 2001
By John Donnelly / Boston Globe
Also Knight Ridder

U.S. begins quiet invasion

WASHINGTON -- The Boston Globe
U.S. officials disclosed Friday that elite special forces teams of three to five people each have been inside Afghanistan for about two weeks, revealing that a military component to the fight against terrorism began only days after the Sept.11 air attack in New York and at the Pentagon.

President Bush said Friday the United States is in "hot pursuit" of those responsible for the attack, but the White House declined to detail forces on the ground in Afghanistan.

The commando teams - the exact number was not revealed - arrived Sept. 13 at bases near two Pakistani cities, Peshawar and Quetta. Soon after, they covertly traveled inside Afghanistan on a mission to both hunt for Saudi exile Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida force of Arab fighters as well as to collect intelligence for future military missions, said two U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The presence of the commando teams was first reported in Pakistani newspapers in both Urdo and English, then by USA Today in Friday's editions.
(More: Charlotte.com/observer News Source)
©2001. charlotte.com, a division of Knight Ridder Digital, is the online partner of The Charlotte Observer

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