Action Update

On Sunday, Oct. 7, 2001, the United States and Britain began air strikes against al Qaeda and Taliban targets in Afghanistan. In addition, officials in the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush are warning that military strikes also could take place in other countries harboring terrorists. Below find news and analysis about the events in Afghanistan and the U.S. war on terrorism in the surrounding region. CDI is sensitive to reporting any information that could endanger lives or operations. Click here for updates on Northern Alliance activity and Taliban responses through Nov. 28, 2001. Given the fluid nature of the conflict and operational security constraints, these updates draw on occasionally unconfirmed and incomplete press reports, as well as official information that is by necessity guarded. As such, troop dispositions and events related here are often approximations.
Operation Enduring Freedom Casualties.

April 20, 2003 - May 4, 2003

Coalition Operations

U.S. Special Forces killed one man and detained seven others April 22 in southern Afghanistan during operations aimed at ridding destabilizing al Qaeda and Taliban elements from the country. A U.S. military spokesperson on the ground could not provide further information. In a separate incident, a U.S. Army soldier was injured following a landmine explosion near Bagram. The soldier was later transported to a U.S. medical facility in Germany.

An April 25 tip from local sources resulted in the confiscation of four heat-seeking anti-aircraft missiles roughly 15 miles southeast of Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan. Afghan authorities, after receiving credible information from a key intelligence source on the ground, responded to the house in the town of Dera Said Mian where the discovery was made. No arrests were made during the seizure.

Two U.S. soldiers were killed and five others injured April 25 following a deadly exchange with militants in the southeastern Afghanistan province of Paktika. According to U.S. military officials, a platoon-sized unit responded to suspicious activity near the U.S. firebase at Shkin when they were fired on by an estimated 20 militants using rocket-propelled grenades. At least three enemy soldiers were killed and an Afghan Army soldier was also wounded in the incident.

General Afghan Security Situation

On April 23, two Afghan soldiers were killed following a land mine explosion that destroyed their vehicle. The soldiers were traveling from Jalalabad to Tora Bora and authorities have an opened an investigation.

A Taliban-led attack on an Afghan government outpost in the Zabul province city of Chapan April 24 resulted in the deaths of two Afghan soldiers and three Taliban fighters. Emerging reports indicate the fighting began following an armed incursion of as many as 80 Taliban fighters into a key government facility in Chapan, beginning a four-hour battle with Afghan troops involving rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons. Most of the assailants are believed to have escaped.

Reports from the Zabul province district of Chopan April 28 revealed a deadly firefight in which 15 Taliban rebels and as many Afghan soldiers were killed. According to an Afghan commander, the battle erupted following an armed incursion of Taliban into Chopan to retake the city when they were stymied by Afghan troops. "Intense fighting is still going on in the mountains of Zabul province and both the groups have been suffering heavy losses," one report commented.

A Taliban-led offensive against Afghan government buildings, weapons depots, and other installations in and around the southern town of Spin Boldak April 28 killed three Afghan soldiers, amid growing concern that Pakistani border areas are the main staging grounds for radical elements. On May 2, Afghan government forces arrested 60 Taliban in Helmand province suspected of attacking the Kajakai dam with rockets and automatic weapons fire.

Pakistan

During a two-day visit to Afghanistan April 23, Afghan President Hamid Karzai met with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and gave him a "most-wanted" list of Taliban sympathizers wanted for crimes against the Afghan people while also imploring the Pakistani leader to contribute more to sealing his side of the porous border from terrorists coming into Afghanistan. It remains to be seen whether or not Musharraf will be able to fulfill these demands, however. In Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP), where the Muttahida Majlis-i-Imal (MMI) party dominates (a collection of fundamentalist political groups that won a majority in the October 2002 elections there), official sympathy for the ousted Taliban regime is absolute; the MMI has even provided sanctuary to those regrouping elements of Taliban seeking it. Moreover, popular sentiments on the ground in NWFP also demand the withdrawal of Pakistan's support in the U.S-led war on terrorism, thus providing an atmosphere of increased tension for Musharraf as he wrestles with the domestic political implications of any future decision he will be forced to make.

Pakistani police scored yet another coup April 28 with the capture of Tawfiq bin Attash, a major al Qaeda operative and a lieutenant of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) suspected of operational involvement in the 2000 bombing of USS Cole. KSM is also suspected in the 1998 East Africa bombings in Dar es Salam and Nairobi, in which Attash is alleged to have played an instrumental role. The East Africa attacks which left more than 250 people dead and as many as 5,000 injured. According to reports, Pakistani authorities were led to Attash's capture by information provided by the ongoing interrogation of KSM, who himself was nabbed by the Pakistanis and turned over to the Americans March 1 in the suburb of Rawalpindi and is considered one of bin Laden's "most senior and most significant lieutenants." The April 28 arrest is a major success in the U.S.-led war on terrorism, as Attash, who along with Ramzi Binalshibh, another significant figure arrested in September 2002, represented some of al Qaeda's most crucial leadership infrastructure. The arrest also produced six additional arrests of suspected Pakistani extremists, probably al Qaeda, as well as the confiscation of 330 pounds of explosives and some light weapons. The White House meanwhile called the arrest "a hopeful and significant capture."

Other News in Brief

An announcement by U.S. military authorities in Afghanistan April 23 revealed U.S. forces killed the person responsible for the brutal murder of Red Cross worker Ricardo Munguia in Kandahar province on March 27. The death of Manguia had been the first foreign aid worker death in the country in five years. U.S. authorities, in collaboration with Afghan government troops, were led to an area in Kandahar province by local informants when they were fired on by automatic weapons fire. In addition to the one casualty, there was also an estimated eight suspects arrested.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld traveled to Kabul May 1 after a whirl-wind tour throughout the Middle East to declare an end to major combat operations in Afghanistan and to shift the U.S. military mission there to reconstruction, humanitarian efforts, and stabilization. Saying that most of the country remains stable except for the border regions with Pakistan, Rumsfeld reiterated his desire for the creation of an Afghan National Army. "I believe that the fate of this country depends in large part on their having their own national army." So far U.S. forces have trained roughly 4,500 Afghan National Army soldiers.
 

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By Armond Caglar CDI Research Assistant acaglar@cdi.org

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