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Politics : Idea Of The Day -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: IQBAL LATIF who wrote (41113)	10/20/2001 6:54:07 PM
From: IQBAL LATIF	Respond to of 50167

Helicopters shuttled in and out through the night, Pakistani troops patrolled the streets and locals peeked from their windows. The remote town of Dalbandin had a grandstand view of some sort of action on the first night of US special force strikes on Afghanistan, which is just 60 km away. "People were scared about all the military activity," said a local journalist. "They thought they were being attacked." "There has been helicopter activity at Dalbandin airport throughout the night. It started at 10.30 pm and continued until 6 am". Paramilitary Frontier Constabulary and Balochistan Reserve police patrolled the streets of the small town. All the activity coincided with a raid by more than 100 elite US special forces, including Army Rangers, who penetrated Afghanistan for a few hours in the first ground strike of the campaign and then were flown out of the country. US special forces are on the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk in the Arabian Sea, from where they can reach Afghanistan by helicopter. Given its proximity to Afghanistan and to the southern Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, Dalbandin is an obvious candidate to serve as a major logistical support centre for US forces. Residents, barred from going onto their rooftops for a better view of the overnight military activity, said they had still been able to see dozens of helicopters shuttling back and forth from the Dalbandin airfield. One resident said he had also seen a plane that appeared to have slid off the runway and got stuck in desert sands at the edge of the air strip. Residents said they had seen a large amount of unusual military activity at the small airport for the past several days, but could not see any American planes or troops. "We have not seen Americans but there is a lot of activity in the airport, lot of army, Pakistani army," said one resident. The security around the base was enormous, with residents estimating the number of Pakistani military and paramilitary reinforcements at double Dalbandin's 5,000 residents.