Ground War to Test Bin Laden's 55th, Afghan Warlords
quote.bloomberg.com.
10/17 19:19
By Glen Justice
Washington, Oct. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Taliban troops under attack by the U.S. are being reinforced by an elite group of soldiers loyal to suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden, according to senior U.S. Department of Defense officials.
The 55th Brigade -- as many as 1,000 soldiers, most of them Arabs and other foreigners -- are recruits to bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network who are better trained, better paid and more dedicated than troops fighting for the ruling Taliban government, military analysts said.
As a result, units of the 55th are being sent in to stiffen resolve among Taliban soldiers in key areas as they fight the U.S. in the air and the rebel Northern Alliance on the ground.
``They're committed,'' said Ali Jalali, a former Afghan colonel who wrote a three-volume military history of Afghanistan and whose work has been published in the U.S. Army War College quarterly, ``Parameters,'' as recently as last spring. ``They don't lose. They fight to the last.''
The brigade will be tested as the Northern Alliance, aided by U.S. warplanes, advances on Mazar-e-Sharif, a crossroads city used to supply Taliban troops in northern Afghanistan.
As U.S. operations in Afghanistan progress, ground forces are becoming more important, military analysts say, and the character of local forces -- both Taliban and Alliance -- will help shape the outcome.
``They will become very important,'' said historian Fred Kagan, who wrote ``While American Sleeps,'' a critique of national security policy, and several books on Soviet military history. ``The personalities of these leaders are critical.''
55th Brigade `Extremists'
The Taliban is estimated to have about 45,000 troops. Their local opposition is the Northern Alliance, a loose confederation of regional armies with about 15,000 troops in all. Prior to the U.S. attacks, the two sides had fought to a standstill.
U.S. defense officials say that the 55th is a light infantry unit, but not in the traditional sense.
``They don't fight as a unit,'' the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. ``They are small groups that go up to the lines as trusted agents of bin Laden.''
Analysts disagree on what threat the 55th poses on the ground. Kagan draws parallels to Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard, which was lionized prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 1991 yet played a minor role in the conflict.
``I don't think these guys are 10 feet tall and covered with hair,'' he said.
Better Weapons
Others say the 55th is a force to be respected, with more ideological will than Taliban troops. ``The Taliban puts them in the most important positions,'' said Julie Sirrs, who analyzed Afghanistan for the Defense Intelligence Agency from 1995 to 1999.
They also have some of the better weaponry available in Afghanistan, where Soviet-era hardware is largely the standard. This includes light Soviet arms -- AK-47s, RPGs and mortars - but not artillery or armored vehicles, U.S. officials said. Sirrs said that may include night vision equipment.
The 55th's commanders are from Saudi Arabia and Egypt, where they received better training than their Taliban counterparts. Many of the Brigade's troops were trained in bin Laden's terrorist camps, U.S. officials said.
``It includes all the extremists,'' said Jalali, who is the chief of the Farsi service of Voice of America.
Alliance Commanders
The Alliance has several commanders fighting the Taliban on different fronts across Afghanistan:
-- Near the city of Mazar-e-Sharif by the Uzbekistan border, General Abdurrashid Dostum commands a force made up mostly of ethnic Uzbeks fighting their way toward the city center. Dostum fought on the side of the Soviets in the 1980s and has a reputation for ferocity, analysts said. He is also known as a dealmaker; he hired a Washington lobbyist earlier this year.
-- In the city of Herat, near Turkmenistan and Iran, Ismael Khan commands a multiethnic force. A former Mujahedeen fighter and Herat governor who escaped from a Taliban prison two years ago, he commands wide respect as a political leader as well as a warrior, analysts say.
-- In the north, General Muhammed Fahim is the successor to the well-known leader Ahmad Shah Masood, who commanded the bulk of Alliance troops before he was assassinated Sept. 10.
Fahim commands mostly Tajik troops on fronts north of Kabul and near the town of Taloqan. He fought with the Mujahedeen. Analysts say he lacks the charisma of his French-speaking predecessor.
There are others. Karim Khalili, a Hazara commander near the city of Bamiyan in central Afghanistan, is often mentioned, as is Abdul Haq, a Pashtun and former Mujahedeen from Kabul who later left the country but has again become politically active, analysts said. The Northern Alliance mainly uses Soviet-era weapons, including T-54, T-55 and T-62 tanks, all variations on the Soviet work horse created after World War II and widely used throughout the Arab world. |
