Afghan commanders considered offering a cease-fire to Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters in the snow-draped Shah-e-Kot Mountains on Tuesday, but U.S. officials rejected any talk of negotiations.
“We have made it very clear that we are not going to halt things,” Lt. Col. Dave Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman, said in Washington. “We are not going to stop the fighting to make any deals.”
With the fighting in its 12th day Wednesday, advancing coalition forces claimed control of the Shah-e-Kot valley in eastern Afghanistan, sweeping up all but a few small groups of Al Qaeda and Taliban holdouts as allied troops worked their way through mountain caves.
“In the past 24 hours, our Afghan allies . . . have seized the objective area, the ridgeline known as the `whale’ . . . and the whole Shah-e-Kot valley,” said Maj. Bryan Hilferty, spokesman for the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division.
Hunting 200 fighters
U.S. bombing slowed to let the first of 1,000 Afghan reinforcements ascend the hills in search of the caves, where an estimated 200 Taliban and Arab fighters are believed to be hiding.
In radio communications monitored by journalists at a desert outpost, Afghan soldiers said they found at least 10 enemy bodies and took on scattered bursts of return fire when they confronted pockets of resistance. The Afghans then descended into caverns only to find them collapsed by bombs.
“We broke through the battlefield front line last night,” Abdul Hanan, an Afghan militia leader, told reporters. “Today I got close enough to see two tents of the enemy and I could see bloodied shoes and a jacket. The enemy were dead.”
Another Afghan fighter returning from the front said that most areas were devoid of resistance and that at least five bodies were found in caves. The mop-up operation could be completed by the weekend, U.S. military officials said.
The Pentagon estimates that roughly 600 U.S. military personnel remain in the mountains to support and lead the Afghan forces of more than 2,000 men. Nearly 500 American fighters were airlifted out of the region in recent days to clear the way for additional Afghan militiamen, Afghan commanders said.
But the U.S. influence was in evidence Tuesday. Throughout the day, Afghan commanders rushing to the front were spotted in the company of plainclothes U.S. Special Forces personnel. U.S. jets streaked overhead, and American aerial reconnaissance circled the region.
The bombing, heavy and sustained in recent days, was intermittent but seemed focused on a few key target areas.
A few miles away, in the village of Surmand, long a place of Taliban sympathy, the deputy police chief spoke of the importance of offering the Taliban side a way out.
“It’s not right to just kill everybody,” said Ghulam Mohammed Farooq, the police commander, reflecting a tribal culture where shifting alliances are common and an enemy one day may be an ally the next.
The bodies of at least two Taliban sympathizers who had left nearby villages to fight in the mountains were hauled by donkey and buried last week. Farooq said remaining fighters should be allowed to give up before they, too, face death.
Concern for Taliban officer
A few dozen Taliban supporters left the rural countryside in recent days to fight on the side of the Arabs and Taliban. Villagers are concerned about the fate of Saif Rahman, a former high-ranking Taliban general and local legend, who is believed to be leading the renegade force in the mountains. They would prefer to see him surrender.
Leading villagers and Afghan commanders in the provincial capital of Gardez said they approached Gul Haider, who leads the Afghan force sent by interim leader Hamid Karzai, about a surrender solution. Village elders said Haider is prepared to push the Americans for a 10-day cease-fire if the enemy “is ready to join us or leave the area.”
Haider was in the mountains Tuesday leading the battle and could not be reached for comment. On Sunday, Haider told foreign reporters that he would never entertain a cease-fire. On Monday, Haider said he was open to the idea.
But local Afghan leaders who met with Haider this week said it was unlikely that Haider would broach the subject with U.S. military advisers, who operate on a policy of no negotiations with terrorists and call the shots in this assault, nicknamed Operation Anaconda.
Separately, the U.S. military said Tuesday that American jet fighters attacked a vehicle in eastern Afghanistan last Wednesday, killing 14 people.
The announcement by Central Command, which heads up U.S. operations in Afghanistan, said it isn’t known whether all 15 people were civilians, but U.S. officials believe they were affiliated with Al Qaeda.
