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American Forces Airlift Marines to Kandahar; Taliban Cornered
Tuesday, November 27, 2001
The Associated Press

“There's hundreds dead here at least,” said the unidentified American in the German television account. “I don't know how many Americans there were. I think one was killed, but I'm not sure.”

KHANABAD, Afghanistan -- AP
Opening a new and perhaps final phase of the war in Afghanistan, American forces airlifted several hundred Marines to the edge of Kandahar on Sunday and prepared to hunt down terrorists and Taliban leaders now that the regime is cornered in its last refuge.

Coming just after dusk, the Marine landing followed a day in which the Northern Alliance took the city of Kunduz, the Taliban's last stronghold in the northern part of the country and U.S. airstrikes helped put down a violent riot by about 300 foreign Taliban supporters in a prison compound. Hundreds of the prisoners were killed.

Waves of helicopters delivered the Marines to an airfield 12 miles south of Kandahar, the spiritual home to the Taliban and its leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar. It was the first significant commitment of U.S. ground forces in a campaign that until now has relied largely on American air power and local Afghan resistance on the ground.

The Marines, from the 15th and 26th Marine Expeditionary Units based on Navy ships in the Arabian Sea, were being flown onshore in CH-53 and CH-46 helicopters from the assault ships USS Bataan and USS Peleliu, a senior administration official said Sunday night.
(More: The Gainesville Sun News Source)
2001 © The Associated Press.

Dan