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[But will serve as an expedient pretext for convincing the mentally-benumbed citizenry of Greater NATOdom to invade, attack or militarily colonize whatever remains of the previously unaffected nations of the world. The universal panacea: Wars for/against terrorism.] U.S. Gen.: Al-Qaida May Regroup By Paul Haven Associated Press Writer Wednesday, March 20, 2002; 12:28 PM BAGRAM, Afghanistan –– The battlefield commander in Operation Anaconda said Wednesday that al-Qaida and Taliban fighters, fueled by a fresh influx of cash, are trying to regroup in eastern Afghanistan despite the just-concluded American offensive there. Citing intelligence data, Maj. Gen. Frank Hagenbeck said local al-Qaida leaders are trying to rebuild their forces in Paktia province, site of the biggest U.S.-led offensive of the Afghan war and a longtime Taliban and al-Qaida stronghold. "I can tell you there are al-Qaida operatives in Paktia right now who are going to great lengths to try to regroup or regenerate," Hagenbeck said in an interview with three news organizations in his office at Bagram Air Base. "They are also spending a lot of money to regroup." Hagenbeck, who commanded U.S. forces in Operation Anaconda, declined to elaborate on what measures al-Qaida operatives were taking to rebuild their forces. He predicted more al-Qaida activity in the months ahead as the weather improves. "This is traditionally the campaigning season. The end of March and into April and somewhat into May. So we expect to see some increased enemy activity," he said. Gunmen attacked U.S. and Afghan troops late Tuesday near the former theater of Operation Anaconda. An American soldiers was wounded in the arm during the firefight at an airfield outside the volatile eastern town of Khost, said Commander Frank Merriman, spokesman for U.S. Central Command. U.S. troops and their Afghan allies called in air support from an AC-130 gunship and a B-1 bomber, which illuminated the area with flares, U.S. Central Command said in a statement. The identity of the attackers was unclear. Three U.S.-allied soldiers were killed in fire at a checkpoint outside the airfield, Afghan officials said. A contingent of up to 1,700 British soldiers is on its way to Afghanistan to join the fight against al-Qaida forces and will begin arriving at Bagram in coming days. Hagenbeck said the force will give the coalition more options. "It will allow us to conduct more simultaneous missions, because we'll have more troops here than in the past," he said. Hagenbeck also said two U.S. 10th Mountain Division units – the 1-87th Infantry and 4-31st Infantry – will be rotated out of Afghanistan and should be back home in Fort Drum, New York by mid-April. They will be replaced by more troops from the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division, he said. Members of the 10th Mountain Division were the first regular U.S. ground troops dispatched to Central Asia as a part of the American war on terrorism. They were first sent to Uzbekistan last fall, providing security for U.S. aircraft at an air base in Termez on the Afghan border. The division moved into Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban. Hagenbeck dismissed claims by local Afghan commanders that many al-Qaida fighters managed to escape during Operation Anaconda, which ended this week. Hagenbeck said commanders used Predator remote-controlled spy planes to watch as hundreds of al-Qaida and Taliban fighters moved into the Shah-e-Kot valley in the first days of offensive – even as the area was under attack. "They were trying to push through, and we allowed them to come in. They were coming in very small groups – three, four, five at a time, using a trail network and they flowed into the valley over a 48-hour period," he said. Hagenbeck said that even as the U.S. began to rout the enemy forces with heavy bombing and ground combat, the fighters continued to enter the valley. Based on monitoring of al-Qaida communications, Hagenbeck said it appeared al-Qaida leaders were unable to warn their fighters to turn back. He said the influx of al-Qaida and Taliban fighters was the reason for widely varying estimates of the number of enemy troops facing coalition forces. U.S. officials initially estimated there were 150 to 200 fighters in the Shah-e-Kot Valley, but estimates later rose to nearly 1,000. Only a few dozen corpses have been recovered from the area, but Hagenbeck said that was because the bodies had been blown to bits by U.S. bombs. "A number of times, more than I can tell you, we watched from the aerial platforms guys being destroyed," Hagenbeck said. In one attack, "we had been watching an area with 40 plus people in it. They called in the aerial strike. We watched the explosion and all we saw afterward was nothing but dirt and mud." The general did not rule out chasing al-Qaida fighters into Pakistan in "hot pursuit," but said it would be done only as a last resort and with the approval of Pakistan's government. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Sports - live college hoops coverage http://sports.yahoo.com/ --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
