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U.S. Troops, Technology to be Added
Thursday, November 01, 2001
(Time)
By Jonathan S. Landay & Barry Shlachter
The Philadelphia Inquirer

"We have made measurable progress."

WASHINGTON
The United States is intensifying the war on the Taliban and Osama bin Laden by sending more special forces to aid opposition groups and advanced surveillance aircraft, including a new robot spy plane, officials said yesterday.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said he wanted a threefold to fourfold increase "as soon as humanly possible" in the number of U.S. commando teams advising United Front guerrillas and guiding air strikes on Taliban front lines. The Turkish government yesterday said it, too, would send commandos to help the opposition, making it the first Muslim nation to offer combat assistance.

In late developments, an Afghan tribal leader, Hamid Karzai, began the first known armed uprising against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan since the air strikes began. His forces claimed to control part of the province of Oruzgan, according to his family and media reports. But the Afghan Islamic Press reported later that the Taliban had arrested 25 of Karzai's followers and planned to hang some of them today.
(More: Inq.Philly.com News Source)
2001 © The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Dan