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Soldiers keep pressure on as fighting rages
By Jodi Enda and Nancy San Martin/Knight Ridder Newspapers
BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan � The bloodiest battle of the war in Afghanistan raged for the fifth day Wednesday as more American soldiers and al Qaida and Taliban fighters poured into the snowy mountain region near Gardez.
Pentagon officials estimated that a U.S.-led coalition, aided by relentless air bombardments, had killed roughly half the 600 to 700 enemy fighters hiding in caves and tunnels.
"The battle very likely will take some time to play out," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said in a briefing at the Pentagon. "I believe that the outcome is reasonably assured, that the people who have been in the battle will surrender or be killed in the days ahead.
"The forces we face represent very hardened elements of al-Qaida and Taliban � true dead enders. We expected that they would put up a fierce fight, and they have, and they are."
Gen. Tommy Franks, the U.S. commander of the war, described it as "very messy" and "very dangerous."
Since Monday, Franks said, 200 to 300 American troops have joined the 800 who already were fighting in subfreezing temperatures in the 60 to 70 square-mile region, in a valley south of the city of Gardez in eastern Afghanistan, near the border with Pakistan. He said he did not know whether he would seek to move more Americans into the battle.
Pentagon officials in Washington and Afghanistan said Wednesday that they felt the momentum was in their favor.
"Yesterday we killed a couple of hundred," said Maj. Bryan Hilferty, a 10th Mountain Division Light Infantry spokesman on the Bagram air base near Afghanistan's capital, Kabul. Noting that more al Qaida and Taliban fighters had entered the area, he said, "If they want to bring in more people ... so we can kill them, we're happy to oblige."
Lt. Col. Walter Piatt, deputy chief of staff for the 10th Mountain Division in Fort Drum, N.Y., said Americans, pro-U.S. Afghans and members of the international anti-terrorism coalition had killed "about half" of the al Qaida and Taliban fighters in the battle zone.
Adbul Matin Hassan, an Afghan commander fighting alongside Americans, said the al Qaida and Taliban fighters were "very much weakened."
Since the fighting began Saturday, eight Americans have died and 50 have been wounded in the region. Conflicting reports emerged Wednesday on the death of one of them � Petty Officer 1st Class Neil C. Roberts, 32, of Woodland, Calif. � a Navy SEAL who fell from a U.S. Chinook helicopter Monday.
Pentagon officials in Afghanistan told reporters that Roberts was dragged away by three al Qaida fighters and died of a bullet wound. Maj. Gen. Frank Hagenbeck, commander of Operation Anaconda, as the latest battle is called, said an unmanned Predator surveillance aircraft relayed live video of the incident.
"We saw him on the Predator being dragged off by three al Qaida men," Hagenbeck said.
Marine Maj. Ralph Mills said Roberts survived the fall and was shot to death.
But Rumsfeld and Franks told reporters at the Pentagon that they had not seen a tape of the incident and did not know how Roberts died.
"I think there are a variety of possibilities of the way this occurred," Franks said. "On Monday what I knew, and what I still know, is that the petty officer in fact fell out of the aircraft." But Franks said it was not yet clear to him whether Roberts had been wounded before he fell out of the helicopter, died from the fall or was killed sometime after he landed.
Rumsfeld added: "It is not whether the bullet hit him from ground fire while he was still in the helicopter or after he fell to the ground and was hit by ground fire or after someone came up and shot him again. We may never know that. That was a matter of minutes. What's important about this is that the United States of America did not decide to withdraw and leave the field."
Instead, he noted, forces went back to retrieve Roberts' body.
Some officials said they were surprised at the intensity with which the al Qaida and Taliban fighters have fought. The militants, believed to be mostly Chechens, Pakistanis and Uzbeks, have ambushed U.S. troops with mortar fire as they landed.
"I didn't really expect them to try and duke it out with us," said Lt. Col. Ron Corkran, commander of a U.S. infantry battalion.
Mortar fire injured at least 12 soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division on Saturday as they landed atop an al Qaida bunker near the village of Marzak.
"I've never been so scared in my life," said Sgt. 1st Class Thomas Abbott, whose right arm was injured by shrapnel. "We thought we were all going to die."
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