January 1, 2002
U.S. Might Send Ground Troops To Assist in the Search for Omar
By JAMES DAO with NORIMITSU ONISHI
WASHINGTON, Dec. 31--The Pentagon is strongly considering plans to send large numbers of American ground troops into a mountainous area of southern Afghanistan to help search for Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban leader, senior Pentagon officials said today.
The plan calls for hundreds of ground troops, most likely marines, to assist forces allied with Gul Agha Shirzai, the American-backed warlord who controls the Kandahar region, in attacking about 2,000 Taliban soldiers thought to be hiding near the town of Baghran in Helmand Province, the officials said.
The Pentagon has become increasingly convinced that those Taliban troops are shielding Mullah Omar, based on intelligence gathered by people on the ground and communications intercepted by aircraft, the officials said.
However, some anti-Taliban Afghan commanders have said they are less sure of those reports, indicating there may be disagreements between the Pentagon and its Afghan allies over whether to attack the Taliban redoubt near Baghran.
There were reports from American news photographers in Kandahar today that they had seen scores of combat-ready marines depart by helicopter from a Marine Corps base at Kandahar Airport and that they appeared headed for the Baghran area.
But officials with the United States Central Command, which oversees all American forces in Afghanistan, said no marines left the Kandahar base today. The officials left open the possibility, however, that other American forces, like Special Operations soldiers, had been moved aboard the helicopters as part of a combat operation.
In addition, more than 20 American Special Forces soldiers, riding in six civilian and military all-wheel drive vehicles laden with equipment and weapons, were seen leaving Kandahar this morning and heading northwest. They appeared to be joining as many as 30 other Special Forces soldiers who had already left for the area in recent days to assist Mr. Shirzai's troops.
Elsewhere in Afghanistan, American Special Operations forces came under small-arms fire today while conducting routine operations in the area around Jalalabad, Central Command officials said. One Special Operations soldier was shot in the leg, but the injury was described as not life threatening, said Maj. Bill Harrison, a Central Command spokesman.
The American forces returned fire, and a Special Operations quick-response force went to the scene, Major Harrison said. But details of the brief skirmish, which took place about 9 p.m. Afghan time, were sketchy, and it remained unclear tonight how many American forces took fire or who attacked them.
More than 50 Special Operations troops have been active in the cave-riddled mountains of Tora Bora, near Jalalabad. Some have been working with anti-Taliban Afghan militias, who are searching through the caves for die-hard Al Qaeda members and intelligence documents. Other Americans, including commandos and snipers, have operated independently in their hunt for Al Qaeda warriors trying to escape into Pakistan.
It was unclear which Americans were attacked today.
In Kandahar, Mr. Shirzai had been planning to send thousands of soldiers to begin a military campaign against the Taliban holdouts. But the plan was placed on hold late Sunday when Taliban commanders offered to surrender, said Yusuf Pashtun, a senior aide to Mr. Shirzai.
''We have now canceled that plan,'' Mr. Pashtun said this morning, minutes before he left Kandahar for Helmand in a convoy that included the six American vehicles. The convoy stopped briefly in front of the house of Ahmed Karzai, the brother and chief spokesman for Hamid Karzai, the leader of Afghanistan's interim government.
Afghan commanders said the Taliban had been given until Thursday to fulfill their surrender agreement.
Sher Muhammad, the governor of Helmand, who was in Kandahar this morning, said a force of Afghan soldiers and the American Special Forces troops were going to the towns of Musa Qala and Kajaki, just south of Baghran. The Taliban were expected to surrender their weapons and vehicles in those towns, before being allowed to return to their villages, Mr. Muhammad said.
Mr. Muhammad said the Taliban there are being led by a commander from the area named Abdul Waheed, but better known as Rais Baghran. Mr. Muhammad added that the Taliban commander had insisted that Mullah Omar was not in Baghran, an assertion that some anti-Taliban commanders seemed willing to believe.
But Muhammad Zali, another senior commander for Mr. Shirzai, said the Taliban officials might be lying and buying time to allow Mullah Omar to escape. ''They will say anything,'' Mr. Zali said. ''We cannot trust them. We have to search all the areas in Baghran to make sure Mullah Muhammad Omar is not there.''
The anti-Taliban forces here have preferred negotiations over fighting with the Taliban, since members of both sides come from the same Pashtun ethnic group. As in Tora Bora, where Afghans showed little interest in searching for Osama bin Laden and other Al Qaeda members, Americans might face the same difficulties in Baghran in their pursuit of Mullah Omar.
This morning, in an apparent effort to pressure the Afghans to send troops to Baghran, American officials showed Mr. Shirzai's commanders surveillance photographs of weapons depots in the region, said Lalai Abdullah, a commander for Mr. Shirzai. Indeed, the addition today of more Special Forces soldiers seemed to reassure some Afghan commanders about the mission in Baghran.
If the marines were sent there, their mission would be to help the Afghan militias encircle the Taliban holdouts, thereby pressuring them to surrender or flushing them into the open where they could be more easily attacked by American warplanes. The marines would also be available to seize Mullah Omar if he tried to flee.
At the same time, Special Forces ground spotters could direct air attacks using the same kinds of laser- and satellite-guided bombs that proved effective in routing Taliban and Al Qaeda forces in northern and eastern Afghanistan. ''If there is fighting, the Americans will help us, just as they have been doing,'' Mr. Khan said. ''They will use their G.P.S.'s and satellite phones to call bombs from airplanes.''
Military officials also reported today that an unmanned Global Hawk reconnaissance aircraft crashed in Pakistan early Sunday while returning to its base there, military officials said. The officials said the crash was not the result of enemy fire, and was probably caused by a mechanical failure.
Until the crash, the military had operated two of the experimental spy planes over Afghanistan.