US copters in Pakistan fired on
No injuries, but attack signals rising hostility
By Bryan Bender, Globe Correspondent, 10/23/2001
WASHINGTON - Two US military helicopters were strafed by small arms fire over Pakistan yesterday - an ominous sign for American forces who are counting on Pakistan to support the US campaign against terror in neighboring Afghanistan.
The hostile action - the first against troops in Pakistan since the US bombing of Afghanistan began two weeks ago - was confirmed by Pentagon officials who declined to be named. It underscores the growing anti-American feeling among Pakistan's Muslim populace, and reflects the threat it represents to the US troops operating on, or over, Pakistan's soil.
Officials said the two US military helicopters were fired on when they tried to recover the wreckage from a Blackhawk helicopter that crashed in southern Pakistan on Friday, killing two servicemen. The helicopters returned to base. No injuries were reported.
US officials quickly notified the Pakistani government through diplomatic channels, and asked that Pakistan remove hostile forces from the area so that the crash recovery could resume, a defense official said. The identity of the attackers is unknown, but officials suspect Islamic radicals aligned with the Taliban and opposed to the US presence in Pakistan.
The helicopter incident occurred as US warplanes struck the front lines of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia for a second day in what Pentagon officials said is a concerted effort to help opposition Northern Alliance forces move on the capital of Kabul and the strategic crossroads of Mazar-e-Sharif in the coming days.
''Our efforts from the air clearly are to assist those forces on the ground in being able to occupy more ground,'' Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon news conference. ''We certainly are ready to have the alliance forces move, both north and south.''
Over the weekend, the US air campaign shifted to targeting Taliban forces in the field, said Air Force General Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. ''Our operations involved a greater emphasis on fielded Taliban forces, rather than fixed targets,'' he said.
He said that six targets were struck on Saturday with an estimated 90 attack planes and that eight targets were hit on Sunday using about 85 strike aircraft. Airdrops of humanitarian aid also continued, in the north, south, and west, bringing the total to more than 700,000 rations delivered since the start of the campaign on Oct. 7.
Reporters were shown video of some of the weekend strikes, including tanks hit near the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar in the south and near Herat. Pentagon officials also said that radio programs intended to win over the Afghan people were broadcast from Commando Solo psychological operations aircraft.
The defense officials also said they are growing increasingly frustrated with what they call the Taliban's misinformation campaign, and complained that the need to disprove false Taliban claims on nearly a daily basis is taking a toll on the military operation.
Rumsfeld yesterday denied Taliban reports that two US helicopters were shot down and that US airstrikes near Herat, northwestern Afghanistan - confirmed to have occurred yesterday - hit a hospital and killed an estimated 100 civilians.
''We have no evidence that is the case,'' Rumsfeld said of the hospital report, saying the Taliban have a history of making claims ''that are not true.''
One recent example, officials said, is Taliban reports last week that US planes struck a bus, killing 18 civilians. After a thorough investigation - including the dispatch of intelligence-gathering aircraft that otherwise could have been used in the military campaign - the report was determined to be unfounded, officials said.
Another is the Taliban claim that the air campaign has prevented humanitarian aid from reaching civilians. The reason the aid is not getting through, officials said, is that the Taliban have been stealing it. The Pentagon also denied Taliban claims last week that a stray bomb killed up to 200 civilians in a residential neighborhood.
''There is clearly a misinformation campaign on the part of the Taliban,'' said one frustrated defense official. ''For us, proving a negative takes a fair amount of time to do.'' He added, ''Such false reports tie up resources, tie up time, and the news media is contributing to that.''
Defense officials reluctantly acknowledge, however, that there is not much they can do about it.
''We're fighting with one hand tied behind our backs,'' said another defense official. ''We're bound by the truth.''
The Pentagon released no additional information about the Friday night special operations raids in Afghanistan except to identify the airfield that Army Rangers parachuted onto about 80 miles southwest of Kandahar. It is called Bibi Tera, which Myers described as a relatively primitive airstrip. The other target of the raids was a compound in Kandahar that included a residence of the Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, who was not present when the US troops stormed the compound.
Myers said translators are working on Taliban documents seized during the raids, hoping to find clues to the whereabouts of Al Qaeda leaders.
Also, the Pentagon announced that 950 more members of the Naval Reserve and 307 members of the Army Reserve and Army National Guard were being called to active duty in support of the war on terrorism.
That brings to 32,325 the total number of National Guard and Reserve members activated since President Bush authorized a partial mobilization after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Material from the Associated Press was included in this report.
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