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Caves Won't Thwart Attack by U.S. Forces, Experts Say
Friday, October 26, 2001
By Esther Schrader / Los Angeles Times

"The elite American teams are a modern, professional fighting force."

WASHINGTON -- LA Times
When the Soviet Union took on Afghanistan, its troops found themselves crawling, terrified, through a vast network of mountain caves studded with knives and booby traps, pursuing moujahedeen fighters who seemed to melt into mountainsides like the night itself.

Although Taliban leaders claim that they will use the same tactic to thwart the United States, their ability to do so when confronted with sophisticated weaponry and highly trained forces may be more myth than reality, former and current defense officials and military analysts say.

Defense officials acknowledge that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of caves, tunnels, aqueducts and bunkers in the mountains and deserts of Afghanistan, the legacy of centuries of warfare and of an ancient farming technique that relies on underground water supplies.
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2001 © The LA Times.

"Caves are clearly in target sets, because that's where al-Qaida has traditionally hidden."

True, and the cavern-to-cavern, hole-to-hole search will effectively take place, but the al Qaeda have been hiding out in Afghan communities of late, daring the U.S. to strike them while they hide in the homes of their expendable hostages.

Dan