Revealed: British plan for Afghan onslaught
• Bin Laden 'hiding in terror camp'
• Allied warships steam to Gulf
• Spy plane downed
Kamal Ahmed in London, Peter Beaumont in Washington and Ed Vulliamy in New York
Sunday September 23, 2001
The Observer
BRITISH troops will lead an international coalition alongside America to wage war on Afghanistan in the next 10 days as security and intelligence sources indicated last night that the net was tightening on Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect behind the terrorist attacks on America.
With an attack now imminent and American warplanes arriving in neighbouring Uzbekistan ahead of the first wave of strikes, security sources in Britain and America said that they were now concentrating their investigation into bin Laden and the al-Qaeda terrorist organisation in the north and west of Afghanistan.
Five terrorist camps around Jalalabad will be the focus of the military campaign, which Ministry of Defence officials last night revealed was now in the 'final stages' of planning.
Sources said that any action by ground troops would be preceded by bombing in the terrorist camps' region. There were unconfirmed reports last night that Special Air Service (SAS) troops were already in northern Afghanistan, working with the anti-Taliban alliance that controls the area.
With America now on a war footing and Britain emerging as its most potent war partner, 13 British warships travelled through the Suez canal yesterday and steamed for the Gulf .
In the largest military mobilisation since the Gulf War 10 years ago, the White House also revealed that a third aircraft carrier, B-52 bombers and warships capable of launching ground-attack Tomahawk cruise missiles had moved into the area to prepare for attack.
Yesterday Bush chaired a National Security Council meeting to complete plans for military action, which could come as early as Thursday. Later today the President will join advisers from the special operations arm of the US Marines at the presidential retreat at Camp David.
It is believed that the coalition force will be led by America with military support and troops from specialist units in Britain and France. Russia will provide logistical support. Tony Blair is on the verge of signing the order agreeing to the use of British troops.
Britain and America now believe that bin Laden is still in Afghanistan, contrary to reports that he had fled to China or Chechnya. 'Bin Laden is in Afghanistan,' the Prime Minister's official spokesman said. 'We know he is there, put it that way.' His words reflected those of Colin Powell, the US secretary of state and key military planner in the White House, who said that there was a 'presumption' that the man who has become a hate figure for many in the West was still in the country.
Although British officials said that the ultimatum to the Taliban authorities that bin Laden must be expelled from Afghanistan was 'open ended', it was made clear that with winter approaching military action needed to be rapid.
It is believed that bin Laden is hiding in a network of camps in the north-west of Afghanistan. The camps at Darunta, Bhesud, Jaji-Maydan, Khost and Tani are well known to the CIA and could be bombed from the air. Senior Whitehall sources said that military programmes could only be put in place when 'the outcome was clear', a reference to Bill Clinton's policy of bombing Afghan camps with cruise missiles in 1998 - which failed to capture or kill bin Laden.
Downing Street said that any action would now take a 'twin track' approach, with the first phase concentrating on finding bin Laden and breaking down the al-Qaeda organisation, and the second phase concentrating on the fight against world terrorism.
In a clear indication that the Government is planning to put Britain onto a war footing, Downing Street has sent a request to all departments asking them to draw up legislation in case of 'national emergency'. Plans are being prepared in the areas of extradition, anti-terrorism legislation and crime to allow the Government to act more swiftly against people suspected of being linked to terrorist organisations.
The move reflects similar action taken during the Gulf War when internment powers were used to imprison up to 100 Iraqis and Palestinians. Many later successfully sued the Government for wrongful imprisonment. The disclosure of the allied plans for war came as tensions in the region heightened dramatically yesterday.
Despite earlier contradictory statements, officials from Afghanistan's ruling Taliban said they had established that their forces had downed a pilotless drone aircraft over Tashkurghan with machinegun fire as well as a helicopter near Dara-i-Suf.
Both areas are in Samangan, about 150 miles north-west of Kabul, where the anti-Taliban commander General Rashid Dostum reported that his force of minority Uzbek fighters had made advances against the Taliban.
Mystery surrounded the origin of the spy plane. A spokesman for Afghanistan's opposition North ern Alliance confirmed the helicopter crash, but blamed it on a mechanical fault. 'The helicopter seems to have gone down because of technical reasons,' the spokesman, Mohamed Ashraf Nadeem, said, adding that the fate of those on board was unknown.
The Taliban's ambassador in Islamabad, Mullah Abdul Saleem Zaeef, said the spyplane had been downed while taking pictures over northern Afghanistan.
Washington frequently uses 'drones' to fly spy missions over Iraq, but the aircraft do not generally have defensive capabilities and make up the majority of planes shot down by Baghdad since the Gulf War. A Pentagon spokesman in Washington would not comment on the report.
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