- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The
United States is rushing a high-flying Global Hawk reconnaissance drone
into the hunt for Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network even before
operational testing has been completed, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
has said.
At the same time, Washington has sought permission from neighbouring Uzbekistan
to host heavily armed, low-flying AC-130 gunships that lay down withering
walls of fire, he said.
"It would be helpful to have AC-130s up North, particularly when you
have a situation like Kunduz" where thousands of Taliban and al Qaeda
troops are holding out in the face of U.S. air strikes that began Oct.
7, Rumsfeld said.
"That particular weapons system and platform can put out an enormous
amount of ordnance and with a great deal of precision without a lot of
collateral damage," he said. Collateral damage is Pentagon jargon
for accidental civilian deaths.
The Northrop Grumman-built Global Hawk long-range reconnaissance aircraft
was starting operations over Afghanistan this week as a "demonstration
model," Rumsfeld told reporters en route to visit U.S. special operations
forces at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
U.S. warplanes have zeroed in on tunnels, caves and fleeing Taliban and
al Qaeda forces chiefly around Kandahar, the Taliban stronghold in southern
Afghanistan, in the past 48 hours, the U.S. Defence Department said on
Wednesday.
"No letup in Ramadan," Richard McGraw, a Pentagon spokesman said
in the latest official U.S. summary of the air campaign begun after the
Sept. 11 attacks on the United States that left perhaps 4,000 dead.
He said 146 sorties were flown over Afghanistan on Tuesday in support of
opposition groups fighting the strictly Islamic Taliban militia, "primarily
around Kandahar and southwest Afghanistan."
Also targeted on Tuesday was Kunduz, a northeastern Taliban stronghold,
McGraw said.
He said warplanes were targeting "Taliban on the run" as well
as fleeing al Qaeda guerrillas. "If they show, we shoot them,"
McGraw said.
The United States is fighting to wipe out Osama bin Laden's Taliban-protected
al Qaeda network of Islamic extremists, suspected of masterminding the
Sept. 11 attacks.
RUMSFELD PREFERS BIN LADEN DEAD
Rumsfeld, asked if he cared whether bin Laden was captured dead or alive,
told CBS's "60 Minutes II" program on Wednesday he would prefer
to have him dead.
"I don't know if it's politically correct to say you'd prefer the
former, but I guess I'd prefer the former myself," he said. "After
what he's done," Rumsfeld said. "You bet your life."
Defence officials said a U.S. military helicopter was damaged in a "hard
landing" in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday that resulted in "broken
bones" for four crew members. None of the injuries were life-threatening,
officials said.
"The cause of the accident is unknown at this time, but it was not
the result of hostile fire," said the Tampa, Florida-based U.S. Central
Command, which is running the U.S. campaign in Afghanistan.
The damaged helicopter has been removed from Afghan territory, the command
said, without providing further details. It said all crew members had been
safely recovered.
In the Arabian Sea, two Marine Expeditionary Units with as many as a combined
total of 4,200 or so Marines were awaiting possible deployment in the hunt
for bin Laden and his guerrillas.
The general in charge of the U.S. campaign paid a flying visit to Afghanistan
on Tuesday, his first of the war.
Army Gen. Tommy Franks, head of the Central Command, said the United States
may introduce a limited number of ground troops to bolster special operations
forces already deployed.
"I am pleased where this campaign inside Afghanistan stands but ...
we have a great deal of work left to do," he told reporters in Tashkent,
capital of neighbouring Uzbekistan, where more than 1,000 light infantry
troops from the U.S. 10th Mountain Division are based.
"Concerning what I call conventional forces ... we obviously have
not taken that off the table," he said. "We may introduce small
numbers of ground forces."
The United States has already used to great effect in Afghanistan another
drone, the $3.2 million Air Force RQ-1B Predator, made by General Atomics
of San Diego.
But the Global Hawk, which flew for the first time in February 1998, cruises
faster than the Predator, at 350 miles an hour; flies higher, at 65,000
feet; and has more than twice the range -- 1,200 miles. The Air Force has
four Global Hawks. Two more are in production to be delivered by the end
of the current fiscal year, or next October.
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