In Next Phase of Attacks, an Emphasis on Helicopter Strikes
By STEVEN LEE MYERS
ASHINGTON, Oct. 9 — The Pentagon is preparing to launch risky raids into Afghanistan using low-flying Army helicopter gunships to find and attack forces allied with Osama bin Laden's terrorist network and the Taliban government, two senior Pentagon officials said today.
The helicopters, operated by special operations forces from bases near — but not in — Afghanistan, would be able to strike pockets of forces after the American air and missile strikes have made more progress at wearing down the Taliban's air defenses and other major military targets.
At the same time, the administration is deploying a growing number of special forces to the region who would be in a position to hunt down terrorists, including troops in Uzbekistan, to the north of Afghanistan.
These, however, do not constitute a potential invasion force for Afghanistan, a prospect that Pentagon officials have for now ruled out.
It is not clear how soon the close-in helicopter operations will begin. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Richard B. Myers of the Air Force, said today that American fighters and bombers were rapidly establishing air superiority over Afghanistan after three days of strikes, carried out from relatively high altitudes. The risks involved in such strikes were illustrated by the deaths of four men working with the United Nations on a demining operation near Kabul, the capital.
"I think essentially we have air supremacy over Afghanistan," he said. But he acknowledged that "there will always be the antiaircraft fire."
"There's always the possibility of these manned portable surface-to- air missiles," the general added.
Although the Air Force bombers and Navy jets that have been attacking Afghanistan have flown higher than the remaining Afghan weapons can reach and the strikes have hit hard at the few air-defense installations that can fire high-altitude missiles, the helicopters would have no such safety if they swooped in low.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said the United States was "moving along well toward our goal of creating conditions necessary to conduct a sustained campaign to root out terrorists," a reference, a senior official said, to the next phase of the operation, which is continuing around the clock.
Mr. Rumsfeld and General Myers did not elaborate on future operations in a news conference at the Pentagon. But other officials said the war plans included deploying additional forces to southern and central Asia, including specially equipped Blackhawk helicopters and other helicopters designed for special operations.
The helicopters, operated by Army special forces units, are equipped with better night vision and target equipment, measures to protect them from ground fire and the ability to refuel in midair.
They have been used in the past in some of the military's most challenging operations, especially since the Persian Gulf war.
The preparations to use helicopters became known as American aircraft, including 10 heavy bombers, joined by waves of fighter jets flying off carriers in the Arabian Sea, once again struck Taliban air defenses, airfields and what Mr. Rumsfeld called modest concentrations of Taliban troops and other forces on the ground. [News agencies reported further attacks near Kandahar early Wednesday.]
For the first time, General Myers listed the targets struck, 31 on the first day followed by 13 on the second, and provided the first aerial photographs of the damage. That included the destruction of what General Myers said was a terrorist training camp called Garmabak Ghar; a surface-to-air missile battery near Kandahar, in the south; and an airfield in Shindand, in the west.
Officials said the strikes were on a similar scale as those before, though they noted that there were no longer very many significant military targets. The strikes today included the first use of 5,000-pound bombs designed to penetrate hardened bunkers, as well as cluster bombs intended to destroy concentrations of troops or weapons.
The senior Pentagon officials declined to identify the additional forces being deployed, citing the need for secrecy on deployments, bases of operations and missions. Indeed, the officials said, full details may never be disclosed. Even in the Pentagon command center, special forces operations are discussed only in a separate area.
But the officials' remarks indicated that the helicopter gunships were part of the Army's 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, which has two battalions at Fort Campbell, Ky., and a third at Hunter Army Airfield, Ga.
The 160th, the sole large Army unit specially trained for such a mission at night and in bad weather, has been involved in many major military operations. It is trained to deploy anywhere in the world in days or even hours. Its helicopters can be ferried in cargo planes.
The officials also declined to discuss the potential bases from which the forces would operate. The Pentagon has ordered a third carrier, the Kitty Hawk, to the region without its full component of fighter jets and other aircraft. But even if it served as a base for special operations troops, its location in the Arabian Sea would be hundreds of miles away.
The Army helicopters can fly several hundred miles after refueling. But that makes their missions even more dangerous, and targets in the north of Afghanistan would be practically inaccessible.
The Pentagon has also deployed nearly 1,000 troops, including an enhanced infantry battalion from the 10th Mountain Division, to a former Soviet air base near Karshi, in Uzbekistan, about 100 miles from the Afghan border. Those troops are providing security for a relatively small contingent of search-and-rescue and special-reconnaissance forces, something that President Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan has agreed to permit. In public, Mr. Karimov has ruled out allowing special operations forces to strike from Uzbek territory, saying, "We are not quite ready for this."
Some American officials have suggested that the agreement might be elastic enough to allow them to mount operations to search for Mr. bin Laden from Uzbekistan.
Launching helicopter gunships into the battle will be risky. Afghan guerrilla fighters armed with Stinger missiles repeatedly shot down Soviet helicopters when they flew below 10,000 feet in the war there in the 1980's.
With the Taliban air defenses more or less impaired, American pilots have also turned their attention to what officials at the Pentagon are calling emerging targets, including small groups of forces, tanks or other equipment being moved after of the initial strikes.
Noting that some F-14's and F/A- 18's have returned to the carriers in the Arabian Sea still clutching their bombs and missiles, officials said there have so far been relatively few of the emerging targets.
One American airman, a B-1 weapons systems officer, said he was surprised when his superiors changed his targets after his plane was aloft. "All the planes are retargetting at a moment's notice," said the officer, who was made available for a telephone interview by Pentagon officials and identified only by the call-sign Morning.
In London, a senior British defense official, echoing Pentagon planners, said the purpose of the attacks so far on Afghanistan was to condition the environment "so that there is less risk of damage to our own people, our own aircraft" in future deployments. Britain has already said the deployment of ground troops is an option, and it has made frequent use of special forces in the past.
Although the United States could launch helicopter raids on its own, a defense official said, the strikes could also be coordinated with the forces in Afghanistan opposed to the Taliban, including the Northern Alliance, as well as opposition groups in southern Afghanistan. |
