KHANABAD, Afghanistan (KRT) –Opening a new and perhaps final phase of the war in Afghanistan, American forces airlifted several hundred Marines to the edge of Kandahar on Sunday and prepared to hunt down terrorists and Taliban leaders now that the regime is cornered.
Coming just after dusk, the Marine landing followed a day in which the Northern Alliance took the city of Kunduz, the Taliban’s last stronghold in the northern part of the country, and U.S. air strikes helped put down a violent riot by about 300 foreign Taliban supporters in a prison compound. Hundreds of the prisoners were killed.
Waves of helicopters delivered the Marines to an airfield 12 miles south of Kandahar, the spiritual home to the Taliban and its leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar. It was the first significant commitment of U.S. ground forces in a campaign that until now has relied largely on American air power and local Afghan resistance on the ground.
The Marines, from the 15th and 26th Marine Expeditionary Units based on Navy ships in the Arabian Sea, were being flown onshore in CH-53 and CH-46 helicopters from the assault ships USS Bataan and USS Peleliu, a senior administration official said Sunday night.
The advance guard of a force of approximately 1,000 Marines, the troops immediately set out to secure the airfield and establish the first American military base inside Afghanistan, according to the official, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity.
Once the airfield is secure, other forces and equipment may be flown in on Air Force C-130 or C-17 transport planes. The Marines are supported by Harrier jump jets, Cobra attack helicopters, Navy fighters from aircraft carriers in the Arabian Sea and Air Force AC-130 gunships.
U.S. special forces had surveyed the location and established contact with local Pashtun military leaders who are fighting the Taliban in Kandahar, the U.S. official said.
The official stressed that the base is a temporary one, and that it’s intended primarily to enable U.S. forces to pursue Osama bin Laden and the remnants of his al-Qaeda terrorist organization more quickly and aggressively. Both Marine Expeditionary Units include Force Reconnaissance Marines, the service’s most elite commandos.
The official did not expect the Marines or other U.S. ground troops to join anti-Taliban Afghan fighters in storming Kandahar itself if Taliban defenders there don’t surrender. But that official also did not rule out the possibility that American special forces might pursue some top Taliban leaders, either inside the city or attempting to escape from it.
Earlier Sunday at Mazar-e-Sharif, fewer than a hundred miles from Kunduz, foreign Taliban fighters rioted inside a camp with weapons smuggled inside and other weapons captured from guards. After a fierce battle that included U.S. air strikes on the prisoners, an estimated 300 Taliban were dead — virtually all of those who had taken up arms.
There were reports that U.S. personnel were inside the camp, but it was unclear whether there were American casualties. Eyewitnesses at the scene, including a Time magazine reporter and a television film crew from Germany, said at least one American may have died. U.S. military officials said there were no soldiers killed or wounded.
Abdullah Abdullah, the foreign minister for the alliance, said Afghan Taliban fighters should be pardoned as they surrender, but foreign soldiers fighting for the Taliban should be treated as terrorists, and Taliban leaders such as Mullah Muhammad Omar should be tried for war crimes.
Omar remained at large as about 3,000 anti-Taliban soldiers moved toward two southern provinces near the regime’s last significant holdout, the city of Kandahar. Bin Laden, the suspected terrorist leader, remained on the loose as well. There were conflicting reports on his whereabouts, but U.S. officials continued to express confidence he would be found.