U.S. Soldiers Landing In Afghanistan

TEHRAN, Wednesday - US infantry landed from helicopters near Kandahar in southwest Afghanistan, stronghold of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden, Iranian state radio said. “Informed sources report that US helicopters from the Pakistani-Afghan border have entered Afghan territory and deployed troops around Kandahar,” a radio correspondent said. No other details were given and the report could not be independently confirmed. In a further indication that ground-based military action is looming after a pounding of Taliban military installations, US ordnance struck militia frontlines at Shohi, 65 kilometres (40 miles) northeast of Kabul, and Bagram, 50km (31 miles) to the north, opposition sources said. Military experts predicted ground troops would enter the fray after the US on Tuesday deployed for the first time one of its most powerful air weapons, the AC-130 gunship, a low- and slow-flying fortress with formidable firepower used to wipe out enemy troops and provide support for special forces. Witnesses in Kabul said an AC-130 was involved in a midday attack Wednesday over the north of Kabul, causing “huge” explosions. The engagement of the AC-130s also indicated that US forces are now confident they have all but eliminated the Taliban’s already primitive anti-aircraft arsenal. On Wednesday US forces, for the first time in their relentless 11-day-old air campaign, targeted frontline Taliban positions. British Prime Minister Tony Blair, speaking in parliament, on Wednesday, gave his broadest hint yet of the imminent use of ground forces in Afghanistan, saying the US-led alliance was preparing “to take more, further military action.” He told parliament that “we are in a process of establishing the ability to take more, further military action against the Taliban regime and the al-Qaeda network.” Blair also said the coalition was now “additionally giving further help” to the opposition Northern Alliance fighting Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban. President George W. Bush warned yesterday the war against terrorism would rock multiple fronts and last more than two years. He departed yesterday morning en-route to China to attend the APEC summit in Shanghai over the weekend. He is due to arrive in China today. Australia will send 1,550 military personnel including 150 elite SAS troops to join the US-led campaign in Afghanistan by mid-November, Prime Minister John Howard announced yesterday. He also warned Australia to expect casualties because its Special Air Services (SAS) commandos would be in the thick of battle, possibly in hand-to-hand combat, with Taliban fighters. “It will not be an easy operation, they just won’t be involved in search and rescue, they will be in the thick of it,” Howard said. “They are very highly trained men, but they carry out incredibly risky, daring and dangerous tasks and in those circumstances the possibility of death, the possibility of casualties is quite high,” he added. The precise role of the Australian SAS is likely to remain secret, although it has a well-developed counter-terrorist capability as well as long-range surveillance skills. Their skills include the ability to infiltrate an area, probably using US special operations helicopters, and hide out for days or weeks while reporting on enemy activity. An exiled Afghan warlord has threatened to enter Afghanistan if the US sends ground forces into his homeland and warned they would suffer “the same fate” as the former Soviet Union. “I will join the resistance forces,” Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who lives in Iran, told AFP and CNN. Ends