Author: Michael Smith, Defence
Correspondent
Publication: The Telegraph, UK
Date: October 26, 2001
The American troops who took part
in last Friday's raids inside Afghanistan encountered far heavier opposition
than they expected, forcing commanders to call in the SAS for future missions.
The "cosmetic" raids were designed
to provide a show of something happening on the ground, both for the psychological
impact on the Taliban and to appease a US public increasingly frustrated
with the slow pace of the war.
Targets were selected because they
were thought to be poorly defended and could be easily filmed to demonstrate
that ground troops could go where they wanted.
But the soldiers from Delta Force,
the US equivalent of the SAS, and the US Rangers were stunned by the resistance
they met and had to get out sooner than expected, Pentagon sources said.
"The raid was a success from the
intelligence point of view," one said. "We got lots of intelligence. But
our men were surprised by the amount of resistance they ran into.
"The speed with which the Taliban
launched a counter- attack came as a bit of a shock. They fought like maniacs,
we didn't expect that. Intelligence got it wrong."
Two US Rangers were killed when
their helicopter crashed inside Pakistan. Another helicopter landed so
quickly while attempting to get the Rangers out that it lost part of its
undercarriage.
The wheels and metal were later
exhibited for television cameras by the Taliban, who claimed to have shot
it down.
Donald Rumsfeld, US defence secretary,
admitted yesterday that the Taliban was a more formidable foe than the
allies expected.
He told the weekly magazine US News
and World Report: "These are very tough people. They've made careers out
of fighting, and they're not going to roll over."
Adml Sir Michael Boyce, Britain's
Chief of Defence Staff, gave warning in an interview with the New York
Times that "quick pinprick" operations would not be enough.
"The quick operation would be good
for certain targets. It may be an important intelligence hit. It may be
an al- Qa'eda senior person to be lifted."
But sometimes the troops would need
to stay longer to achieve "a proper reconnaissance", he said. "It is conceivable
that we could conduct an operation for a period of weeks."
Both Sir Michael and Colin Powell,
US secretary of state, said the war could go on into the holy month of
Ramadan, something that may strain further a coalition already showing
signs of fraying.
But Sir Michael told the Financial
Times: "We're not aware Ramadan stops terrorists claiming to be good Muslims
from conducting terrorist raids."
