For the past two days, U.S. and NATO forces
For the past two days, U.S. and NATO forces have been conducting a major attack against a compound in a remote area of Eastern Afghanistan where Osama bin Laden or another senior al Qaeda leader may be hiding, ABC News has learned.
According to eyewitnesses and local reporters in Kunar province, Coalition forces launched a fierce attack on a small enclave in the village of Mandaghel, approximately 17 miles from the border with Pakistan, on Friday afternoon. Warplanes pounded the positions; U.S. special forces and Afghan National Army soldiers moved in shortly afterwards.
The assault appeared to meet stiff resistance from militants at the compound. Heavy artillery and gunfire could be heard for hours, local witnesses said. A handful of civilians were reportedly wounded in the strike. Though sealed off from outside access, the area now appears to be under coalition control.
U.S. officials declined to identify who the operation was targeting, but indicated they were after a "High Value Target" (HVT) . Official sources would not rule out that al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden himself was the intended victim. Afghan officials said the target could be another senior ranking al Qaeda leader.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/03/afghanistan_us_.html
According to eyewitnesses and local reporters in Kunar province, Coalition forces launched a fierce attack on a small enclave in the village of Mandaghel, approximately 17 miles from the border with Pakistan, on Friday afternoon. Warplanes pounded the positions; U.S. special forces and Afghan National Army soldiers moved in shortly afterwards.
The assault appeared to meet stiff resistance from militants at the compound. Heavy artillery and gunfire could be heard for hours, local witnesses said. A handful of civilians were reportedly wounded in the strike. Though sealed off from outside access, the area now appears to be under coalition control.
U.S. officials declined to identify who the operation was targeting, but indicated they were after a "High Value Target" (HVT) . Official sources would not rule out that al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden himself was the intended victim. Afghan officials said the target could be another senior ranking al Qaeda leader.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/03/afghanistan_us_.html
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Just what in hell is NATO forces and Allies. Seems like we are almost alone in this fight. Cant help but wonder the perchentage of OTHER fighting troops are aiding us in fighting. Not just standing around with their thumbs up their azzes as spectators and fault finders. Makes me wonder just why we ever said "Laffette we are here", and also aided other countries in time of need in two wars. Damn poor payoff we got. 0 -
Go get some guys!!! 0 -
If they kill Osama bin Laden, I doubt it would make the news unless he wants to be buried in the Bahamas. 0 -
quote:Originally posted by JamesRK
If they kill Osama bin Laden, I doubt it would make the news unless he wants to be buried in the Bahamas.
[:D][:D][:D]0 -
It's Bush's fault. 0 -
nemesisenforcer,
I agree that is all bush's fault. I used the lowercase "b", since it is true, that all that real men in the world do what they do for bush (aint talkin' beer). Wrap your brain 'round that a little while.[:D]
Earl0 -
Not to hijack your thread, GRD -- but this may explain how they're finding the bad guys:
http://www.examiner.com/articlePDF.cfm?articleID=594773
The Pentagon has turned a secret terrorist-hunting unit into a nearly
self-contained command of more than 1,000 men and women who
collect intelligence and track and capture America's most-wanted
enemies.
The most significant boost for U.S. Joint Special Operations
Command came last year in an unpublicized move. The Pentagon
took a super-secret spy unit at Fort Belvoir, Va., from the Army
and put it under the JSOC's control.
The unit, code-named Task Force Orange, specializes in
infiltrating foreign countries, tailing people and intercepting
communications. Operatives have dug up fiber-optic telephone
lines overseas and attached a listening device for the National
Security Agency.
The task force features veteran warriors, intelligence officers and technical wizards who use electronic devices in innovative ways. It maintains its own fleet of airplanes at a Washington-area airport.
Information for this article came from two sources involved in the special operations community.
They requested anonymity because of fear of reprisal for talking to a reporter.
The JSOC has not found its two most-wanted targets, Osama bin Laden and his second-in-command, Ayman Zawahiri. Intelligence officials this week told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the two are in Pakistan's ungoverned badlands. Pakistan is officially
off-limits to U.S. combat troops.
The JSOC's successes are normally not publicized. But when it tracked a cleric to the doorstep of Abu Musab Zarqawi, the notorious leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, and the Air Force killed him in an air
strike last June, President Bush publicly praised the commando group.
Army Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the JSOC commander, was one of the first people to view Zarqawi's body amid the rubble. The JSOC has also chased down scores of senior Zarqawi lieutenants and played a role in the "spider hole" discovery of Saddam Hussein in December 2003.
Bush disclosed that the unit located Zarqawi, but he did not say how it did it. Task Force Orange tracked various cell phones during the search.
Until its recent buildup, the JSOC had about 600 operatives. Bush's fiscal 2008 budget calls for even larger increases at the JSOC's Fort Bragg, N.C., compound. The JSOC has received more warriors, intelligence officers and communications specialists.
The JSOC's principal operators are Navy SEALs and Army Delta Force, soldiers who began special operations careers as Rangers or Green Berets.
The JSOC's operations are so secret that spokespeople at the Pentagon and at U.S. Special Operations Command declined to answer questions about its budget.
The Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and subsequent war on terrorism have propelled the JSOC into one of the military's most important combat units. Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld empowered SoCom, the JSOC's overseer, to do its own battle planning and missions. He also
handpicked McChrystal.
"JSOC is a central component in the war on terror because it's the tip of the spear," said professor Richard Shultz, who teaches international politics at Tufts University's Fletcher School. "It is the force used to strike at the most important targets."
It was not always that way. The Pentagon commissioned Shultz in 2001 to research why the JSOC was never used in the 1990s to hunt down bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders. He found that the Pentagon wanted better intelligence on bin Laden's whereabouts and the CIA said
the information was the best it had. The stalemate resulted in the JSOC doing a lot of planning but no counter-terror action.
"It's your strike force, and yet it was never used once for its primary mission before Sept. 11," Shultz said.
The Pentagon has increased SoCom's manpower from 45,655 in 2001 to 47,911 today. But at the same time, it took away 9,000 civil affairs and psychological warfare officers and put them under
the Army Reserves. The increase in the number of pure warriors - Rangers, Delta Force, SEALs, Green Berets and special aviators - is larger than the numbers comparison indicates.
Navy Vice Adm. Eric Olson, a SEAL and SoCom's deputy commander, said its active-duty roster will increase by 17,000 during the next six years, according to a Pentagon news release.
rscarborough@dcexaminer.com
Examiner0 -
I bet if they capture osama get benta, the acl-puke would not want us to torture him, even if it would save the lives of several thousand americans. [:(!]
What say you?0 -
quote:Originally posted by 65gto389
I bet if they capture osama get benta, the acl-puke would not want us to torture him, even if it would save the lives of several thousand americans. [:(!]
What say you?
I say, oooops..................I thought the safety was on General!!0 -
Didnt mean to take your topic away there git_r_done. 0 -
quote:Originally posted by 65gto389
Didnt mean to take your topic away there git_r_done.
Your allright![:D]0 -
What's your take on it, Mr. O'Reilly??
What say you??
D.0 -
quote:Originally posted by JamesRK
If they kill Osama bin Laden, I doubt it would make the news unless he wants to be buried in the Bahamas.
Or if he's wearing a diaper when they take him.0
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