Eastern Alliance Fighters Allege US Scuttled Tora Bora Surrender
One Eastern Alliance group opposing the remnants of the Taliban in the White Mountains says the United
States scuttled the Taliban surrender proposal by resuming bombing. The US and another group say there
never was any real surrender proposal and the negotiations were a charade designed to buy time and allow
enemy fighters to escape.
The US preference for killing as many enemy fighters in the field is no secret and, given the American
situation, is probably wise. The US cannot stage hundreds or thousands of trials. Aside from the logistics, the
trials will serve as a continuing reminder to the Islamic world of the indignities the US has imposed on it. To
let the Afghans handle the POWs is also difficult. The Afghans want reconciliation, not more enmity, and may
be inclined to deal more gently with the POWs than the US. America is also probably not encouraged by
reports that several hundred of the northern POWs have purchased release and passage to the Iran border.
To let the enemy fighters go to regroup and attack again is unthinkable.
Western media reports speak of very heavy American bombing taking place all through the second half of
Thursday and continuing into Friday night. AC-130 gunships are active, and the size of some explosions has
led to speculation more Daisy Cutters have been dropped. Observers say Eastern Alliance vehicular traffic on
the road from Jalalabad is well above usual, with Alliance fighters continuing to pour into the battle area.
Approximately sixty British and 40 American SF troops plus some New Zealand SAS are reported to be in the
battle. US gunships are also involved, and western military helicopter and vehicular traffic has also been
heavy.
Some reporters speak of forests felled and hillsides collapsed under the weight of the US bombing. One report
said that bits of clothing were visible on trees stripped of their leaves. The US is using its new 3000-lb
bunker buster. First used in Iraq, the new bombs are said to penetrate at least twice as deep as the first
versions. They can cut through eleven feet of concrete or 100 feet of earth, and the fuse is said to be
sufficiently sophisticated that it can count how many floors of a building the bomb has passed through. It is
possible that the penetration is greater than that publicly known. Readers must keep in mind that something
akin to a hundred sorties a day is being flown against an area that a few days ago was 10 miles square, but
has shrunk considerably by now. Each of these sorties is 10 to 100 times as effective as the sorties of 30
years ago, because the bombs are not blindly dropped, but carefully targeted.
The US, in fact, is going after just one or two enemy fighters at a time. ABC-TV showed night thermal images
of two fighters on a mountain slope, and then an explosion right on them. The weapon might have been a
bomb, but it also could have been a 105mm round from an AC-130 howitzer. We bring this up to show the
extent to which the US is willing to go to eliminate the enemy fighters. This also underscores why we believe
the escaped Taliban will pose no meaningful threat to the new Afghan government - they will not get a
chance to form up, leave alone attack, and now they will fight without external resupply in a hostile land. |
