Posted on 11/02/2001 7:48:05 PM PST by scannell
All eyes on Kabul's front line
By Anthony Davis JDW Correspondent, Panshir Valley
As US airstrikes intensified across northern Afghanistan this week, Taliban front-line forces have for the first time been suffering serious losses, paving the way for ground operations by the opposition United Front (UF).
Airstrikes on 1 November hit Taliban forces on front lines near Keshendeh south of Mazar-e Sharif in what UF sources described as the heaviest day of bombing in the Mazar region to date. A B-52H strike also targeted the front line near the confluence of the Kokcha and the Amu Darya river, which marks the Afghan-Tajik border. Strikes throughout 2 November marked the heaviest bombing north of Kabul to date.
UF commanders have greeted the intensified bombing with satisfaction. "Compared to bombing in earlier days, these strikes [north of Kabul on 31 October] were particularly effective," Gen Abdul Nasir, an officer on the staff of UF Kabul theatre commander Gen Bismillah Khan, told JDW. "Enemy casualties were heavy and our information is that three tanks, 15 trucks and two artillery pieces were destroyed." Other sources added that in all 15 tanks had been destroyed on the Kabul front from 27-31 October.
UF Foreign Minister Dr Abdullah said if the intensified bombing were sustained at similar levels he believed the way would be opened for a breakthrough on any front "in a matter of days".
Over the past week the UF has continued preparations that aim to resupply and bring up to full strength brigades in the Kabul theatre. Five infantry brigades are currently committed to the front on the Old and New Road leading south to Kabul. Local irregulars support these regular forces. Independent estimates are that the UF has now deployed 6,000-8,000 troops in the Kabul theatre, or around half of the forces based in its northeastern stronghold. No reliable estimates are available for the Taliban but analysts believe that, given a reported influx of hundreds of fresh Pakistani volunteers, numbers could be between 7,000 and 10,000.
As for the Northern Alliance boys, they were saying they were not going forward until we put real troops in. (Not that Rangers aren't real, just that they are not very many of them in theatre).
Now you see it, BOOM!!!now you don't
How do they perform that trick at night?
"yo! abdul! you got any ammo for a spandau mauser?"
we should drop loads of t-shirts for 'em, maybe with the slogan, "stop a bullet for allah."
dep
I hear this every day. When do we reach full intensity?
Good question, but it's an easy answer. They hear the planes coming long before they see them. Afghanistan doesn't have a sky full of planes, and they can very effectively identify anything flying as ours.
Actually, the Brits and the Germans used these crude ground link systems in WWII. Very simple and effective. In WWI, they Allies used the same idea to give Paris warning whenever the Germans fired the Paris gun. In that case it was a telephone, but there was enough time to here 'incoming' and run into a hole because of the very high trajectory.
In a sense we are not really carpet bombing, as the planes are going in one by one. It's not so much a carpet as a hallway runner. Perhaps that will change.
The last time they were in control, we just split and left them in the lurch and they got hit hard. Seems as though they remember that.
With Fuel-Air, they could run for cover...but not run back.
The Russkies used a lot of those too. It's a big country, and the lines are very thin. I remember Rumsfeld once saying we weren't going to waste a Cruise missile to take out small targets, but that's all there is.
Infantry is still the Queen of the battlefield, and air power but her handmaiden.
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