7 U.S. soldiers die in battle

Seven U.S. soldiers were killed in fierce fighting with Al Qaeda and Taliban forces in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, marking the bloodiest offensive for Americans fighting terrorist groups and their backers.

Six of the deaths occurred when a Chinook helicopter came under enemy fire as it landed in an attempt to rescue another soldier. That soldier died when he fell or was knocked out of a different helicopter that was also hit by enemy fire, according to Pentagon reports.

Eleven soldiers were wounded in the rescue attempt, said Gen. Tommy Franks, the U.S. theater commander for Afghanistan.

The Operation Anaconda offensive began Friday and marks the opening of a new, more dangerous phase of the war, U.S. officials said.

“Clearly, this is the largest military operation we have been engaged in thus far, with the largest combat losses,” chief Defense Department spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said Monday.

Some 40 Americans have been wounded since the offensive began, but about half have already returned to duty.

Speaking in Minnesota, President Bush said the casualties would not undercut public support for the war on terrorism or force him to re-evaluate his commitment to Afghanistan.

“I’m obviously saddened by the loss of life. All America is saddened when one of our soldiers loses life,” Bush said before giving a speech to thousands of high school students, parents and teachers in Eden Prairie, Minn.

“On the other hand, I think most Americans, and I hope these parents and loved ones, understand the cause is important and the cause is just,” Bush said.

“Our country is still under threat, and so long as our country is under threat, this great nation will hunt down those who want to harm innocent Americans.”

At a Pentagon briefing, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said “enemy forces have sustained much larger numbers of killed and wounded, and there will be many more.”

Operation Anaconda marks the first time the U.S. has used large numbers of conventional ground forces in battle in Afghanistan, and also the first time such troops have taken the main burden of the fight.

Afghan forces allied with the U.S. had previously led most ground attacks.

In this operation, the U.S. and its allies are attempting to destroy a well-armed and determined enemy holed up in a rugged 60- to 70-square mile section south of Kabul, the Afghan capital. Dominated by two high mountain ridges, the area is located near the Pakistani border and the town of Gardez.

As Afghan and other U.S. forces blocked passes and escape routes, helicopter-borne U.S. strike troops went after Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters dug in along the heights.

U.S. in the thick of it

The action represented a marked departure from December’s battle of Tora Bora, in which friendly Afghan troops supported by the U.S. military defeated an Al Qaeda and Taliban force but failed to prevent the enemy from escaping.

American special operations forces, along with contingents of Canadian, Australian, French, German and other allied commandos, were assisting the new operation.

“There are a number of pockets of enemy forces in reasonably large numbers,” said Rumsfeld. “They’re obviously well-organized. They’re dug in; they’re well-armed, and they’re fighting fiercely. We knew they would resist strongly, and anticipated a fierce fight. That is exactly what is taking place.”

Rumsfeld indicated more casualties could be expected, saying, “We intend to continue the operations until those Al Qaeda and Taliban who remain either surrender or are killed.”

Bush noted that he relies on the advice of ground commanders “as to what is necessary to win, but we’ll take whatever means is necessary to protect our servicemen and women.”

Rumsfeld also said that a Navy pilot, whose carrier group was bound for the Afghanistan region, was killed when he was forced to eject over the Mediterranean Sea.

During the ground attack Saturday, Army Chief Warrant Officer Stanley Harriman, 34, of Wade, N.C., was killed in combat.

“Any time you have a high concentration of forces on the ground, you can anticipate more casualties,” Franks said. “Yes, it is more dangerous.”

While acknowledging that the U.S. had learned things from the Tora Bora engagement, Franks denied that the new operation was in direct response to it, saying the Pentagon had learned from other Afghanistan battles too.

Air power still important

Waves of U.S. warplanes, including A-10 Warthog ground attack aircraft, F-15s, B-52s and AC-130 gunships were supporting Operation Anaconda, named after the large South American snake that crushes its prey to death.

Claiming the U.S.-led effort was “making good progress,” Franks estimated that some 100 to 200 Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters had been killed by late Monday.

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He described the terrain as among the most rugged of the war, with helicopter-borne soldiers from the 10th Mountain and 101st Airborne Divisions trying to root out enemy pockets in mountain ranges between 8,000 and 12,000 feet high–at temperatures of 15 to 20 degrees.

Of the 2,000 troops engaged in the operation, a little less than half were friendly Afghans, 800 to 900 were Americans and another 200 were allied special operations troops, Franks said.

Franks said full details of how the American soldiers were killed were not yet available because of “the fog of war.”

Franks, whose briefing at his Central Command headquarters in Tampa was relayed to the Pentagon via closed-circuit television, said the casualties came when the enemy fired on helicopters.

He said that in one clash, a Chinook attempting to insert a reconnaissance unit in enemy territory came under fire. The helicopter took off and landed elsewhere, and the pilot then discovered he had lost one of those aboard, Franks said.

Enemy bullets greet copter

The other helicopter was one of two in its location that were fired upon while flying at low altitude. The aircraft landed “under the full control of the pilot,” Franks said, but the soldiers aboard were almost immediately engaged in a firefight with the enemy.

He said Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters in these pockets ranged from 5 to 20 or more in number. The enemy is armed with automatic weapons, including machine guns, as well as mortars, hand-held rockets and surface-to-air missiles, Franks said.

The operation began Friday with an assault by a combined U.S. and Afghan force that was compelled to withdraw when enemy fire destroyed transport trucks and supplies, Franks said.

The shift to U.S. conventional ground forces was not in response to that setback but had been planned for weeks as an integral part of the operation, Franks said.

Asked if there shouldn’t have been more of an aerial bombardment prior to the operation, Franks said the U.S. wanted to retain the element of surprise and did so.

Joining Rumsfeld at the Pentagon briefing, Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, rejected the suggestion of some questioners that the casualties reflected insufficient preparation or an operation gone wrong.

“The last thing you want me to do is to second-guess Gen. Franks and his folks, and I won’t do that,” Myers said. “We were briefed on this plan about two weeks ago. It was a sound plan.”

Outside experts agreed.

Michelle Flournoy, deputy assistant secretary of defense in the Clinton administration, said criticism of the plan “reflects the expectation that has been built up that the U.S. can fight casualty-less wars.”

“That’s obviously not true,” she said. “You can minimize them, but the risk is always there. . . . It’s remarkable there haven’t been more in this campaign.”

Military analyst Daniel Goure, vice president of the Lexington Institute, a national security think tank, concurred.

“This is not something gone wrong,” he said. “At a higher level, it’s something gone right: the realization that we’re going to have to go in and engage Al Qaeda and Taliban ourselves.”