U.S. aircraft and ground troops attacked Al Qaeda and Taliban forces entrenched in mountain strongholds near Gardez, Afghanistan, on Tuesday, seizing one major cave complex containing weapons stockpiles as well as documents that could be used to carry out terrorist attacks.
“We’ve killed a lot of people,” Air Force Brig. Gen. John Rosa of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said at a Pentagon news briefing. “They’re not roaming around freely like they were. They’re dug in. They’re hunkered in. We’ve got a simultaneous attack at times with air from the U.S. and coalition forces.”
Rosa said the cave complex contained mortars, rocket-propelled grenade rounds and small arms, as well as foreign driver’s licenses and passports.
Another arms cache was found at another location, he said.
Fresh U.S. troops were being rotated into the fight. After being repulsed early on, Afghan fighters allied with the United States had resumed the offensive, Rosa said. Victoria Clarke, the Defense Department’s chief spokeswoman, said four enemy fighters were captured but none had surrendered.
More than 450 bombs have been dropped on the enemy positions since the new campaign, code-named Operation Anaconda, began Friday night.
A-10 Warthog ground-attack warplanes and AC-130 gunships were supporting the attacks, the bloodiest of the war for U.S. forces.
An American soldier and three Afghan allies died Saturday during the initial phase of the operation, and seven U.S. troops lost their lives Monday in two firefights involving helicopters.
No new casualties had been reported as of Tuesday afternoon. Rosa said more than 40 Americans had been wounded.
“We are pressing very hard,” Clarke said. “Our posture on this is very aggressive and very forward-leaning.”
Operation Anaconda is aimed at encircling and destroying die-hard Al Qaeda and Taliban units reportedly trapped in a 70-square-mile area in the mountains southeast of Kabul near the Pakistan border.
The object of the operation is to kill or capture the hundreds of enemy fighters caught within the the area and prevent them from escaping into Pakistan and launching new terrorist attacks against the United States.
The strategy is intended to avoid the mistakes of the December battle of Tora Bora, in which a friendly Afghan force defeated its Al Qaeda and Taliban opposition but allowed many foes to escape.
Rosa would not speculate whether terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden, Taliban supreme leader Mohammed Omar or any other high-ranking enemy commanders were in the area under attack.
Nearly 1,000 allied Afghan soldiers are manning the perimeter of the target area while about 800 to 900 U.S. troops–supported by special operations forces from France, Germany and other coalition countries–go after the Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters.
It is the first time the Pentagon is using conventional rather than special operations forces to bear the brunt of the campaign, mostly elements of the elite 101st Airborne Division and 10th Mountain Division–the latter the Army’s lead unit for mountain and cold-weather fighting.
The combat area is largely in mountains, some as high as 12,000 feet, and temperatures are well below freezing.
“This is like fighting in the middle of the Rocky Mountains in the wintertime,” Rosa said.
The bodies of all the U.S. troops killed during the operation were recovered.
“We leave no one behind,” Rosa said.
