Gunships, Rebels Pound Taliban
NewsMax.com Wires
Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2001
WASHINGTON - More than 100 aircraft including two
Air Force Special Operations AC-130 gunships took
part in a blistering attack on just 12 targets in
Afghanistan Monday, marking the first time the AC-130
has been used in the conflict, according to Pentagon
officials Tuesday.
The debut of the AC-130 "Spectre," an armored and
well-armed converted cargo plane, indicates a turning
point of sorts in the campaign. The military believes it
has sufficiently quieted Taliban air defenses to allow the
powerful but low, slow-flying aircraft to loiter around its
targets.
Its effect on the enemy and can be devastating,
operationally and psychologically: It fires repeatedly
with its two loud cannons and one gun with extreme
precision.
"It's fair to say it is an extremely effective platform that
provides a presence at least as audible as it is visible,"
said Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold, the Joint Staff director
of operations at the Pentagon.
Retired NATO Commander Gen. Wes Clark described it
this way at the Pentagon: "It just goes around a target
and boom, boom, boom, boom."
"It can really chew up a target," said a senior defense
official.
Because of its precision and ability to loiter, the gunship
is especially useful in going after troop concentrations,
waiting until they move into view and then opening fire.
"It has a large crew of specialists able to acquire targets
that fighters can't get," said Newbold.
After 10 days of bombing, the strategically critical town
of Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan is likely to fall
to Northern Alliance opposition forces soon, according
to Newbold.
"It's loss to the Taliban would be a significant set back,"
Newbold said.
Mazar-i-Sharif has popped up often on the U.S. target
list. Less than 100 kilometers south of Uzbekistan, it sits
on a major Taliban resupply route. It has gone back and
forth between Taliban and rebel forces for the last three
years, Newbold said. Northern Alliance rebels are 10
kilometers from Mazar-i-Sharif.
"It really is to our advantage that the Taliban has to
worry about forces coming at them from every aspect,"
Newbold said. "They are in danger of being cut off right
now. Their position could be in jeopardy."
The United States increasingly has been targeting
Taliban troops on the ground, including beginning to
bomb on a plain north of Kabul where many have been
dug in but until Monday largely unassailed by U.S. jets.
"We are striking Taliban military positions around Kabul,
including those that protect the capital," Newbold said.
"I think the series of strikes has had a fairly dramatic
effect on the Taliban ... The combat power of the
Taliban has been eviscerated."
Even as President Bush stood next to the president of
the American Red Cross for a fund-raising event, the
U.S. military is managing Red Cross issues of its own:
the charity organization charges one of its food
warehouses outside Kabul was hit by an errant missile
and a guard was injured.
"We truly don't know right now what happened there
and that range of possibilities is considerable," Newbold
said. "I know there were operations in that area."
Around 90 carrier-based fighters and six to eight
long-range bombers participated in Monday's strikes.
Navy ships launched three Tomahawk cruise missiles. All
four aircraft carriers were involved in operations,
Newbold said.
That would include participation by the aircraft carrier
USS Kitty Hawk, which arrived in the region from its
homeport in Japan with none of its planes. The Kitty
Hawk is likely to be used as a "lily pad" for special
operations forces, as the decks of other ships are in use
by fighter aircraft.
newsmax.com
tom watson tosiwmee |
