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Afghan War Enters the Volatile Third Phase
Tuesday, April 9, 2002
By John O'Callaghan
The Bangkok Post

“Operational security” dictates that missions are kept vague, but officials downplay the idea of a large coalition campaign, in favour of more targeted strikes that take advantage of the British commandos. Phase three began to some degree with recent searches focusing on the eastern provinces of Paktia and Khost next to the Pakistan border.

Six months on, the Afghan War has hit a lull as US-led forces enter a treacherous third phase against hardcore remnants of the al Qaeda and Taliban that could last far longer than expected.

Despite the US-led attack on the Taliban last year and a huge ground offensive in eastern Afghanistan last month, many rebels have disappeared into more isolated mountain caves, blended into villages or fled across the border into Pakistan.

As some American infantry units pull out, British commandos say they have the means to beat the kind of elusive enemy and tortuous terrain that defied the Soviet army for nearly a decade in the 1980s. “I don't think they will group in large numbers. They'll play a terrorist-type game,” a Royal Marines source said. “You just keep taking away little bits of them.”

The British commandos are flying in after phase two, the fierce US bombing and ground assaults of “Operation Anaconda” that broke the back of rebels regrouping around the Shahi Kot Valley in eastern Afghanistan.

But sporadic rocket and machinegun attacks on coalition bases and patrols in eastern and southern Afghanistan show that al Qaeda and Taliban forces are still a major threat.

“It's a fluid battle,” one American officer said. “Things are rapidly changing.”
(More: BangkokPost.com News Source)
2002 © The Post Publishing Public Co., Ltd.

Dan